As there is an increase in the expected requirements for mathematics within the curriculum, some individuals argue that high amounts of pressure will be placed upon pupils to complete work which exceeds their capabilities which may lead to the creation of confusion, misconceptions and misunderstanding (Dracup, 2015). However, Hansen et al. (2014: 1) believes that misconceptions in children’s learning are critical to comprehend how children learn and how to embrace these concepts to support every child’s ‘mathematical cognitive development’. Agreeably, Cockburn (2008) mentions that it should be emphasised that misconceptions are not negative but instead they help to reveal children’s reasoning and how they acquire an understanding of mathematical
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This is agreed by Mapolelo and Akinsola (2015) as they believe that with a strong level of integrated knowledge, teachers are more likely to teach the subject more dynamically with different pedagogies whilst encouraging and engaging students. Conversely, educators who possess an inexact knowledge of concepts may pass this understanding onto their students. They may also fail to identify misconceptions and lack a comprehension of key ideas which could leave children feeling ‘frustrated and can lead to deteriorating behaviour’ (Paton, 2010: 1). Moreover, Shepherd (2013) argues that not all teachers with a sound knowledge are effective teachers and not all teachers with poor subject understanding are ineffective teachers. …show more content…
According to Hansen et al. (2014), many children are introduced to the concept of fractions from an early age by using practical resources. For example, some parents encourage early notions by allowing children to choose the biggest half or by asking their child to share out their sweets. This however can cause incorrect mathematics as children should be taught that halves are equal. Within my lessons, we used a variety of resources such as counting objects, playdough, multilink, number cards and real life resources including a cake and pizzas. The counting objects included a variety of seeds, conkers and twigs, which linked in with our nocturnal animal learning theme, (Appendix 5) to allow children to explore amounts of fractions by using real life objects. By using a Real-word connection approach, it helped to involve relevance, complexity and inspiration of the world around them (Resources for Rethinking, 2016). I also found that linking back to the Visual, Auditory and Kinaesthetic (VAK) learning styles which were originally developed by Bandler and Grinder (1970), the resources I used helped and appealed to sensory and kinaesthetic learners as it gave them a more hands on activity. In order to help correct individual’s misconceptions about fractions, it was important for me to demonstrate how
This is agreed by Mapolelo and Akinsola (2015) as they believe that with a strong level of integrated knowledge, teachers are more likely to teach the subject more dynamically with different pedagogies whilst encouraging and engaging students. Conversely, educators who possess an inexact knowledge of concepts may pass this understanding onto their students. They may also fail to identify misconceptions and lack a comprehension of key ideas which could leave children feeling ‘frustrated and can lead to deteriorating behaviour’ (Paton, 2010: 1). Moreover, Shepherd (2013) argues that not all teachers with a sound knowledge are effective teachers and not all teachers with poor subject understanding are ineffective teachers. …show more content…
According to Hansen et al. (2014), many children are introduced to the concept of fractions from an early age by using practical resources. For example, some parents encourage early notions by allowing children to choose the biggest half or by asking their child to share out their sweets. This however can cause incorrect mathematics as children should be taught that halves are equal. Within my lessons, we used a variety of resources such as counting objects, playdough, multilink, number cards and real life resources including a cake and pizzas. The counting objects included a variety of seeds, conkers and twigs, which linked in with our nocturnal animal learning theme, (Appendix 5) to allow children to explore amounts of fractions by using real life objects. By using a Real-word connection approach, it helped to involve relevance, complexity and inspiration of the world around them (Resources for Rethinking, 2016). I also found that linking back to the Visual, Auditory and Kinaesthetic (VAK) learning styles which were originally developed by Bandler and Grinder (1970), the resources I used helped and appealed to sensory and kinaesthetic learners as it gave them a more hands on activity. In order to help correct individual’s misconceptions about fractions, it was important for me to demonstrate how