Daily Class Reflection

Session 2 - 23 August 2011

The video on the dice game brought awareness to how much we know about the materials we use in our daily teachings. I am aware that a normal dice has six sides and numbers or dots of 1 to 6 on each side. This game with the two dice made me learn that the total of the opposite side in a dice is 7. A simple game that can be played with the preschoolers, too.

During my primary school days (1970s), solving long divisions was like a nightmare. I can never get it correct, until I started explaining the steps, or rather memorise the steps. There was no understanding of tens and ones or any other skills. Not until I started teaching my own children did I get the understanding of how it should be done to make a child understand.

Jerome Bruner’s CPA approach well suits with the way children learn. In our childcare children are given concrete materials to explore. Then pictures are used and only when necessary abstract thinking is introduced. Not only for maths but also for any subject matter the CPA approach applies.

I enjoyed playing the sticks game in Lesson 6. Making a bad number brings in a lot of quick calculations to win the game. I played the game a few times with Elsie. We realised that proper calculation leads one to win the game. When children play it repeatedly, they will be able to comprehend the bad number concept. There is addition and subtraction involved in this game.

The five key points on generalization, visualization, communication, number sense and metacognition was experienced through the various activities that we did in class today. Via communication, students display their understanding and teachers assess the learning that has taken place.