How children learn mathematics? What are
the big ideas?
Today we got an opportunity to become
learners in the class. We had the chance to experience what our children go
through. It is something that I believe every teacher knows but sometimes I
feel we need a little reminder. It is the importance of learning through
exploration.
We were given a set of Chinese tangrams and
told to use the shapes and form a rectangle. Sound pretty simple? Well, maybe
to some. The challenge was finding different ways to form a rectangle and also
to use different number of shapes to create a rectangle. It is through the
freedom of exploration that along with my partner, we were able to come out
with different ways of creating a rectangle.
This simple activity allowed me to see the
importance of exploration and also the role the teacher plays in children’s
learning. Here are some of the roles a teacher plays in this activity:
-
knowing
the child’s prior knowledge and tapping on that
-
allowing
room and ample time for exploration
-
role-modeling
and creating a sense of wonderment
-
challenging
the child to the next level
-
Scaffolding
the child’s learning
My other big takeaway from today’s session
was learning about Jerome Bruner’s Learning Theory. The theory talks about concrete,
pictorial and abstract (CPA). It emphasizes on the importance
of first having concrete experiences then moving onto pictorial (visualizing)
and then going into abstract. Each stage is essential in learning.
I hope to be able to explore more on this
CPA approach and also how looking at and understanding patterns will lead to
visualization. More on this and the importance of problem solving in the
entries to come.
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