Saturday 20 August 2011

Reflections Chapter 2


Reflection on Chapter 2
Reading chapter 2,  gives an insight into how children are seeming to learn Mathematics. My concerns reflected in Chapter 1 had the answers in Chapter 2. These are a few pointers in my learning from this chapter. The first most important thing to set right from the beginning is the environment - a risk taking environment. Instead of a classroom whereby they always answer given worksheets and complete plus and minus quizzes, higher-level thinking activities should be the main part of a Mathematics classroom. Self discovery will lead to mastery of the subject.
As I mentioned about the importance of the teacher in a Mathematics classroom in Chapter 1’s reflection, in this Chapter it is also emphasised-’When a teacher succeeds in setting up a classroom in which students feel obligated to listen to one another, to make their own contributions clear and comprehensible ,and to provide evidence for their claims, that teacher has set in place a powerful context for student learning.’
Understanding theories and their role in learning Mathematics will help us to identify the areas that require more assimilating and accommodating.  Children can be given encouragement and guidance to overcome their problems by providing opportunities to talk about Mathematics and reflecting on their thoughts, encourage multiple approaches, treat errors as learning opportunities, scaffold new content and by honoring diversity.
To attain proficiency in mathematics, the 5 strands –conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, productive disposition strategic competence and adaptive reasoning are essential. In order for a student to develop these attitudes and behaviours, it must be supported with multiple representations to build relational understanding.  Using various models to support the relational understanding is very vital in learning Mathematics. 
Up till now, the importance of connecting the dots is made clear, however the ‘connector’ is the most important factor – THE TEACHER.

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