Today was the first lesson to elementary math. My initial thoughts before the lesson is to gather as much information on ways to teach Mathematics. However, after today's lesson, i understand more on the syllabus by MOE and my take away is on how children learnt Mathematics instead.
From the first problem solving using Tangrams, we as learners gathered that we learnt through exploration, scaffolding and role modelling. Thus, children learned through the above ways too.
My daughter is currently in primary two and teaching her Math is a daunting task for me. I ended up scolding or screaming at her most of the time instead of teaching her due to my frustration why she couldn't grasp the concepts.
After today's class, I had a realisation that I do not understand how she learnt. Dr Yeap mentioned that besides the three methods listed earlier, children learnt through using concrete materials, pictorial and abstract. My mistake would be teaching my daughter using pictorial (bar model) and hoping she is able to grasp the concept (abstract).
I enjoyed all the problems posed today. Though it is elementary mathematics, but it kept us thinking and challenged us to problem solve in many ways.
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