Reflection for Workshop 1

Learning Mathematics was never easy for me.  I had the perception that solving Maths is just like solving a jigsaw puzzle where I need to put each and every jigsaw piece at the right place to create the beautiful picture.  I wondered how I will teach Maths to young children when I, myself, use to dislike Maths when I was young.  I was also quite surprise that there diversity in terms of how we count in our workshop and that there were only 3 other students who counts like me in the workshop. I wondered which the right way to count is or should I use the same method that I was taught to develop my future students’ number sense.

Of course, where is a better start than the beginning? The first workshop was really useful as I learnt a lot about the beginning processes.  We played with the materials that we would use to teach Maths to children.  I learnt that it is important for teachers to scaffold their learners while they are at the beginning processes by providing enough materials and verbal encouragement in order to motivate them in Maths.  The beginning is important as it determines what we will do next, therefore, it is important for children to enjoy Maths as much as they can at the beginning processes so that they can continue their journey in Maths in a more enthused manner.

I also learnt that using real life situations is important for learner to grasp Maths at young age.  As a future teacher in Malaysia, I will try to cater to the diversity of students and provide culturally suitable materials and real world situation to teach Maths.  In that way, my students will be able to learn Maths better by relating to what they learn in their classrooms to their experience of their own.

I hope to learn more in the coming weeks and hopefully more on how to teach Maths effectively to cater for diversity in the classrooms like in Malaysia.