Session 1 - 23/9/13

In today's lesson we were introduced to 3 important theories - Dienes, Vygotsky and Bruner. But what strike me the most was Diene's theory which has 3 stages:
1. Play
2. Structured learning
3. Practice

It is important that children are introduced to a Mathematical concept through play, something that they enjoy doing. When children enjoy what they do, they are able to learn effectively. Don't say children, adults like us too would do better in things that we enjoy doing like my dad who enjoys fixing things. He likes fixing almost anything and everything and he's good at it. Why so? That's because he enjoys doing it. But if we were given a mathematical problem like what Dr Yeap gave us this evening, did we really enjoy doing it? Did some of us managed to solve it? Well, I didn't.

Just like children, they need to be given opportunties to learn by doing things that they enjoy. Providing them with concrete items encourage them to play and explore with it and would help them in understanding the concept that will be taught to them. I'm sure most of us enjoyed the tangrams session we had earlier on. Why? That's because we're "doing" something. We're "playing" and exploring with the tangrams making and forming rectangles and it didn't strike me that we were actually learning geometry until Dr Yeap told us. So, that is how the foundations of the mathmatical concept is built. And when they enjoy learning the foundation of the particular mathematical concept, learning in depth of the concept would be a breeze for them. This is when "structure learning" comes in.

We explored with the tangrams and tried making rectangles of different sizes.

Can you make a a rectangle using 3 pieces?

Can you make a rectangle using 7 pieces?

 

 

 Can you make a rectangle using 7 pieces but in a different way?

Or perhaps just use 4/5/6 pieces? Give it a try and tell me how it is! ;)

-latifahnajib