Session Five (26/8/2011)
It was the fifth session with Dr Yeap. More and more complex problems were discussed. We continued with fraction. Though Dr Yeap tried his best to explain and provided visualization, I still found it rather tricky and a great challenge to try comprehending the lesson. However, after a few attempts, yes, I managed to do it. Being not mathematically inclined and the way I was taught mathematics when I was in school could be the contributing factors as to why I had problem viewing and understanding the problem sums well. Hence, I am determined to make the children learn mathematics in the proper ways it should – the CPA Approach.
We also learnt about Bloom’s Taxonomy. I looked up the meaning of the word in thesaurus and a few other words came out such as classification, categorization, arrangement and such. Out of the six levels in Bloom’s Taxonomy, three levels were used in mathematics and they are knowledge, comprehension and application levels.
We also did graph and was told to chart the number of pegs we received as tokens for our class participation. I saw quite a number of graphs being done. For my group, we did the line graph. In total till session five, I collected seven pegs. It was encouraging to receive that number but I actually hoped that I could participate more if only I understand the problem sums being discussed better and able to “see” and provide reasoning in the mathematical ways.
Dr Yeap did mention that in Singapore children have the opportunity to learn the same topic again and again albeit at a higher level (The Spiral Curriculum). My question is – “what happens if a child is not able to master the very basic level of a particular topic and he is exposed to the same topic but at higher level?
Well, we have another lesson for mathematics. As of now, I must say that I have learnt quite a number of new things pertaining to mathematics and am still looking forward to learn more…
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