Reflection on Session Two (23/8/2011)



We started off by doing the quiz on cardinal number. By virtue that the name was “quiz” I was already shaken. With the time given (15 minutes) it was almost as good as I was not able to do it at all! As mentioned in my first session reflection, due to my lacking of mathematical skill or rather my phobia of it, I need a little longer time to think it through every maths problem. I can’t imagine that I am actually doing maths quizzes at this period of my learning journey again. Nevertheless, despite my shortcoming, I am not going to give up. Rather, I will do my best to learn so that I will be able to use the knowledge gained with the children in my centre.

We learnt new word today – subitize. Once again, I tried to put into use the concept behind it. Yes, it works again! Most of the K2 children were able to subitize number from one to seven. There was also a group of K2 children with higher abilities who were able to subitize numbers up to ten (I had the opportunity to really see children with differentiated learning abilities).While this game was going on, at the back of my mind I was recalling the fact about ‘differentiated learning’ – that was emphasized repeatedly by Dr Yeap and Peggy). Now that I know the importance of it, I will work closely with my teachers to ensure that we will take into consideration the differentiated learning aspect every time the teachers conduct lesson. 


Figure 3: Children were so excited to participate. As they were told to voice out the number of circles without counting them individually, some of them covered their faces – just to make sure they did not ‘accidentally’ do the counting

Figure 4: Some of the higher ability children were able to subitize the number of circles correctly while some others actually need to count them.

After going through the session with the children and told them about subitizing, I tried my best to then explain to my teachers about the concept and how they could detect whether the children are doing it or not. While in the process of explaining, one of the children joined in our conversation and said to her form teacher, “Teacher Zubaidah, we can write this word in our “Word Bank book right?” I was thrilled to think that this child was able to extend her learning from maths to language. With that, the rest of the children joined in chorus and agreed with the idea. This evident really proved to me that children do not learn in isolation. They are able to extend their learning into other subject areas. Hence, it further affirmed my understanding that every learning opportunity can encompass the different domains of development.

Moving on with the stick game, we learn about the good and bad numbers. I managed to detect a few patterns in relation to the game but have yet to try playing the game with the kindergarten children in my centre. And in everything we did, justification is necessary so as to ensure we understand the logic behind it.

Many other concepts were taught. In short, children learn in the following ways:

v  learn procedure (procedural understanding)

v  learn conceptual (relational understanding)

v  learn convention (conventional understanding)

And another important understanding – Mathematics is a tool (vehicle) for learning and thinking for the development and improvement of child’s intellectual competence.

Looking forward to Session Three...