LADMMM6 JAN/FEB 2015 EXAMINATION

Question 1

1.1. Group work:

1.1.1. What are the advantages of group work:
 Higher achievement and increased retention
 More frequent higher level reasoning, deeper understanding and critical thinking
 More ‘on task’ and less disruptive behaviour
 Greater achievement motivation and intrinsic motivation to learn
 Greater ability to view situations from the perspective of others
 More positive accepting and supportive behaviours with peers regardless of gender,
ability, ethnic, social class or handicap differences
 Greater social support
 More positive attitudes towards teachers, principals and other staff
 More positive attitudes towards subject areas, learning and school
 Greater psychological health adjustment and well-being
 More positive self-esteem based on self-acceptance
 Greater social competencies.

1.1.2. Principles for effective group implementation:

 Positive interdependence: The members of the group must believe that they cannot
succeed unless everyone succeeds. Activities and tasks need to be carefully
structured so that each member of the group has some resource or material that
others need. They therefore cannot achieve the desired goal on their own. To help
achieve this, members of the group are often assigned a specific role, e.g. reader,
checker, and scribe (shared goal, rewards, resources, functional roles in group).
 Individual and group accountability: The purpose of co-operative groups is to make
each member of the group a stronger individual in his or her own right. The group
members must understand that they cannot ‘hitch-hike’ on the work of others. They
are required to work as a whole and they may need to help one another to achieve
the desired goal. It is important to provide a structure in which group members can
hold each other accountable; this might take the form of peer assessment within the
group (responsibility for own and group’s learning).
 Face-to-face interaction: It must be made clear that groups must meet to do the
work. Sometime must be scheduled into class time as you cannot assume that they
are all able to meet for homework (shared decisions about materials, monitoring,
and outcomes; reflection on the process).
 Interpersonal and small group skills: Interpersonal and small-group skills do not
magically appear. If you are going to use co-operative learning successfully, you have
to find ways to teach the learners how to behave towards each other, so that their
groups are productive.
 Group processing: reflection on goal-achievement, fostering group working
relations.
 Collaborative skills: decision-making, trust, communication, conflict management.
1.2. Problem solving:
1.2.1. Concerns of problem solving work as instructional goal:
 Potentially Poorer Performance on Tests
 Student Unpreparedness
 Teacher Unpreparedness
 Time-Consuming Assessment
 Varying Degrees of Relevancy and Applicability
 The first difficulty with this approach is that it begins where the teacher is rather
than where the learner is. It assumes that all learners will be able to make sense of
the explanation in the manner the teacher thinks best.
 The second difficulty with the teach-then-solve approach is that problem solving is
separated from the learning process. The learners expect the teacher to tell them
the rules and are unlikely to solve problems for which solution methods have not
been provided. In essence, learning mathematics is separated from ‘doing
mathematics’. This does not make sense.
1.2.2. Reasons for including problem-solving:
 Can help learners realise that the knowledge they already have may be applied in
new situations, and that this process can lead to new knowledge.
 Help to foster critical and analytical thinking skills
 Learners will be able to build their mathematical ideas from simple tasks and are
able to acquire mathematical skills.
 Develop a cognitive schema which cognitive scientists call problem-type schemata
when confronted with a mathematical problem (as part of constructivist theory).
 If carried out effectively, then learners could become successful in handling a
problem situation.
 Problem solving allows students to view content in a more realistic way as they
analyse and create resolutions to the problems.
 When solving problems, learners focus their attention on ideas and sense-making.
This leads to the development of new ideas and enhances understanding. In
contrast a more traditional approach emphasises ‘getting it right’ and following the
directions supplied by the teacher.
 When solving problems, learners are encouraged to think that they can do
mathematics and that mathematics makes sense. As learners develop their
understanding, their confidence in mathematics is also developed.
 As learners discuss ideas, draw pictures, defend their own solutions and evaluate
other solutions and write explanations they provide the teacher with an insight into
their thought process and their mathematical progress.
 In solving problems, learners develop reasoning and communication, and make
connections with existing knowledge. These are the processes of ‘doing’
mathematics that go beyond the understanding of mathematical content.
 A problem-based approach is more rewarding and more stimulating than a teach-by-
telling approach. Learners are actively engaged in making sense of, and solving the
problem. The development of their understanding is exciting for the learners and
the teacher.
Question 2

2.1. Classroom atmosphere for doing mathematics:

An environment for doing mathematics is one in which learners are allowed to engage in
investigative processes where they have the time and space to explore particular cases
(problems). Then they can move slowly towards establishing, through discovery and logical
reasoning, the underlying regularity and order (in the form of rules, principles, number patterns
and so on).
Learners can create a ‘conjecturing atmosphere’ in the classroom if the teacher provides
appropriate tasks and promotes learner thinking and discussion around these tasks. This
atmosphere is one in which the rightness or wrongness of answers is not the issue, but rather an
environment which encourages learners to make conjectures (guesses) as to the regularity
(sameness) they see and to discuss these conjectures with others without fear of being judged
wrong or stupid, to listen to the ideas expressed by others and to modify their conjectures as a
result.
The mathematical processes involved in doing mathematics are best expressed by the action
verbs. They require reaching out, taking risks, testing ideas and expressing these ideas to others.
(In the traditional classroom these verbs take the form of: listening, copying, memorising, drilling
and repeating – passive activities with very little mental engagement, involving no risks and little
initiative.)
The classroom must be an environment where every learner is respected regardless of his or her
perceived ‘cleverness’, where learners can take risks without fear that they will be criticised if
they make a mistake. It should be an environment in which learners work in groups, in pairs or
individually, but are always sharing ideas and engaged in discussion.

2.2. Benefits of teaching mathematics with a problem

 Enhanced content knowledge and deeper conceptual understanding: Because students
are working with the mathematics and not procedures and algorithms their
mathematical understanding is taken to a much deeper level. Students are creating
meaning versus fact collecting.
 Fosters mathematical communication and keep a constant flow of dialog between
teacher and student: As students work with each other, present their findings, and
answer teacher questions they are communicating both in writing and orally using
mathematics vocabulary and concepts. No longer is just giving a final answer the only
thing that needs to be communicated.
 Increased Requirement of Student Ownership for the Work: In a problem-centred
classroom, students are doing the work and engaging in positive student struggle as they
work at honing their problem-solving skills. No longer is the teacher struggling to make
the learning easy for every student.
 Increased retention and motivation: Work completed in a problem-centred classroom
“reflects the way a student’s mind actually works, not a set of parlor-game procedures
for manipulating students into learning. Because students are afforded some freedom in
selecting a solution strategy rather than being forced into a procedure that may not
make sense to them, mathematics because less daunting leading to increased
 motivation for many students as well as greater levels of retention because there is
meaning behind the work for each student.
 Increase in the connections made between concepts and skills: Because prior
knowledge comes into play more quickly in a problem-centred classroom, students are
able to more easily see and understand the connections between multiple concepts and
procedures.

2.3. Using examples to enhance meaningful learning in mathematics:

 The significance of examples is summarised by Watson and Mason (2002): “learning
mathematics can be seen as a process of generalizing from specific examples”
 In the teaching and learning of mathematics, examples play an important role where the
teacher uses certain examples to explain and give mathematical understanding to the
students.
 The examples should be able to demonstrate the procedural and conceptual
understanding in addition to finding the relationship and making generalization.
 Examples too play an important role in developing the conceptual understanding and
certain examples can be significant in enhancing mathematical theory.
 Using examples is a method practiced by teachers to explain and give mathematical
understanding in the teaching and learning process.
 The teacher needs to have the knowledge of interacting between the theory and
practice in the teaching and learning of mathematics.
 Teachers use examples in various ways, often to introduce an idea or illustrate a
concept.
 Also, examples are used by teachers in the assignment of specific tasks, such as
homework.
 Examples are therefore paramount in mathematical teaching and learning.

2.4. Reflective thought:

Reflective thought means sifting through existing ideas to find those that seem to be the most
useful in giving meaning to the new idea.
Importance of Reflective Thought: Through reflective thought, we create an integrated network
of connections between ideas (also referred to as cognitive schemas). As we are exposed to
more information or experience, the networks are added to or changed – so our cognitive or
mental schemas are always being modified to include new ideas. Piaget says when a person
interacts with an experience/situation/idea, one of two things happens. Either the new
experience is integrated into his existing schema (a process called assimilation) or the existing
schema has to be adapted to accommodate the new idea/experience (a process called
adaptation).

2.5. Mathematics communication in the classroom:

Mathematical communication is as much part of mathematics classes as mathematics itself.
Mathematical communication is a social process in which participants interact, exchanging
information, influencing each other, taking up the attitude of the other and, simultaneously,
expressing and asserting his or her singularity. The following are ways in which mathematical
communication can be promoted in the classroom:
  Which videos that model mathematical communication skills
 Through classroom discussion:
 Reinforce active listen skills, because communication isn’t just about speaking; it’s also
about listening.
 Offer group presentation and assignments: team-building exercises can also help
students sharpen both oral and written communication skills.
 Ask open-ended questions: open-ended questions are vital for inspiring discussion and
demonstrating that there are multiple ways to perceive and answer a question
 Use tasks and activities that foster critical thinking, this can be done verbally or through
written assignment that give students the chance to answer questions creatively using
their own words and expressions.

Question 3

3.1. Knowing an idea is about memorising rules and using recipe methods diligently in computations,
whereas understanding an idea is about being able to connect ideas together, rather than simply
knowing isolated facts.
Understanding depends on the existence of appropriate ideas and the creation of new
connections. The greater the number of appropriate connections to a network of ideas, the
better the understanding will be. A person’s understanding exists along a continuum.
At one pole, an idea is associated with many others in a rich network of related ideas. This is the
pole of so-called ‘relational understanding’. At the other, the ideas are loosely connected, or
isolated from each other. This is the pole of so called ‘instrumental understanding’.
Example of an idea: addition of fractions.
Rote learning: this will be learned through practicing many examples which involves addition of
fractions until this idea becomes part of the learner. However, the learner will not be able to
apply this knowledge in new situations.

3.2. Computation
3.3. Conceptual knowledge of mathematics consists of logical relationships constructed internally
and existing in the mind as a part of the greater network of ideas: That is, knowledge made up of
relationships between objects, which are not inherent in the objects themselves, but are
introduced through mental activity. Example: to be able to estimate the perimeter of the room.
Procedural knowledge of mathematics is knowledge of the rules and procedures that one uses
in carrying out routine mathematical tasks. It includes the symbolism that is used to represent
mathematics. Example: Be able to measure the perimeter of the room (i.e. using step by step
procedure).

Question 4

4.1. Assessment in mathematics:

4.1.1. What is assessment?
Assessment is a continuous, planned process of gathering information about the
performance of learners measured against the Assessment Standards (ASs) of the Learning
Outcomes (LOs).
4.1.2. Why we assess learners work in mathematics?
The main purpose of assessing learners should be to determine prior learning, diagnose
learning difficulties, monitor the progress of learners and enhance their learning, determine
the learners’ overall performance at a given time and monitor the quality of the education
system.
Baseline assessment is used to measure learners’ existing ideas, knowledge, experiences
and skills. It is used at the beginning of a new set of learning activities to determine what the
learner already knows (i.e. recognition of prior learning [RPL]).

Summative assessment provides an overall picture about the extent of a learner's success at
a given time to determine if they have met the learning outcomes. It usually takes place at
the end of the unit of study, term or year. It is mostly used as the basis for assigning grades
or determining progression to the next class or grade.

Diagnostic assessment is used to find out about the nature and cause of barriers to learning
experienced by specific learners. It is followed by guidance, appropriate support and
intervention strategies, on reference to specialist help in the case of learners with special
education needs.

Formative assessment monitors and supports the process of learning and teaching. It is
used to inform teachers and learners about their progress so as to improve teaching and
learning. It happens continuously and helps the learner to constantly think how to improve
his/her performance. Formative assessments:
 Help learners identify their strengths and weaknesses and target areas that need
work.
 Help teachers recognise where learners are struggling and address problems
immediately.
4.2. Four phases of assessment
 Plan the assessment.
 Gather the evidence.
 Interpret the evidence.
 Use the results.

4.3. Essential features of a rubrics

 Clearly delineated points: Every good rubric contains four or five main components that
you are looking for in a project. These points can be one word or a whole sentence; it
doesn't matter as long as they are understandable. For example, how well is the
argument presented?" Under that heading, you would include things like evidence,
commentary and analysis of research.
 Subcategories that relate to main points: You can't grade someone based on one-word
categories alone. Therefore, in each category you should include descriptions of specific
things that you are looking for.
 100 total points: It's easier for you if you make your projects out of 100 points. When
you're assigning point values for each category, keep this in mind.
  Total points per section with breakdowns in subsections: Go through your rubric's main
components and assign point values to each. Then, break up these points and distribute
them among the subcomponents you've listed for each main part.
 Include room for comments: Using a rubric should make it easy to tell why a student
gets the grade he or she does--after all, the parts where students miss points will be
obvious.

4.4. Three point of reference:

Self-referencing could be used by the teacher to help learners plot their own development
without this being downgraded (or over-rated) in comparison to the achievements of other
learners. Example: The parent or teacher may criticise the learner for getting poor marks for a
test. However, the learner may draw their attention to the fact that he or she has improved on
his or her previous test. Standardised tests are self-referenced.

Criterion-referencing: criteria are used as reference points in OBE. The criteria are the learning
outcomes (LOs) and the assessment standards (ASs). Example: When learners are given a task to
do, they are also given the criteria on the basis of which the task will be assessed. From the
beginning, they are aware of what criteria they have to meet and how they will be assessed.
Outcomes-based education is more criterion-referenced.

Norm-referencing is useful as a tool for things such as university entrance rating.

The norm-referenced results can be used to decide whether or not a learner has achieved
sufficiently well (against the given norm) to be allowed into the different faculties of the
University. Example: traditional assessment.

LADMMM6 OCT/NOV 2016 EXAMINATION

Question 1

1.1. Behaviourist and constructivist theories in teaching and learning mathematics:

There are two teaching approaches to mathematics. They are behavioural and constructivist.

The behavioural approach or behaviourism refers to a theory of learning that is focused on

external events as the cause of changes in observable behaviours of students. Learning occurs
from classical conditioning; which means that any stimulus provided will lead to a particular
response and operant conditioning is learning in which a voluntary behaviour is strengthened or
 weakened by consequences or antecedents Students are taught in teacher-centred lessons or
with direct instruction. There is a large possibility that the students will learn the procedural
content and not the concept content. Students are also extrinsically motivated in this form of
teaching.

Constructivism is the opposite. Students actively engage in the lessons by asking questions based
on prior knowledge to construct new knowledge and understanding. The knowledge they
develop will have a contextual element that will allow it to be more meaningful to the students.
Constructivist approach is defined as 'envisaging learners actively interacting with their
environment: physical, social and psychological,’ therefore the focus is on the individual as an
active agent in the construction of mathematical meaning on the basis of the prior knowledge
and experience they have.

1.2. Both approaches can be linked to mathematics as they are useful in different ways. However, I
support constructivist approach, because is more learner-focused. The constructivist approach is
a learner-centred approach that allows students to engage and expand on their own knowledge.
Consequently this means that students are learning at their own pace and to their own learning
interests, even if this means not answering to content descriptions. It also means that students
might develop their own conceptual understanding of concepts and ideas. Students in turn
become focused on their own interests instead of what the task is asking.

Question 4

4.1. Misconceptions linked to learning mathematics

4.1.1. Three misconceptions:
 0, 234 is bigger than 0, 85 (Since 234 is bigger than 85)
 (Learner performed subtraction operation distinctly with the numerators
producing 2: (3 − 1 = 2) and the denominators producing 3: (5 − 2 = 3).
 (The learner thinks that it is okay to add the powers because the base
is the same for both terms. Instead of adding the powers, the correct thing to do
would have been to add the coefficients of the two terms to attain

4.1.2. How to handle the identified misconceptions:

In the problem involving, decimals the teacher could spend a lesson with the learners
drawing up decimals on an enormous class-made cardboard number line. The learners could
explore the positions of different decimals and so would eventually be able to explain why 0,
234 is not bigger than 0, 85.

In problems involving fractions, it is important to impress upon learners that the numerator
indicates the number of parts and the denominator indicates the type of part. Premature
attention to rules for computation should be discouraged. These strategies can be used:
Begin with simple contextual tasks, Connect the meaning of fraction computation with
whole number computation, illustration of using array technique.
 The teacher should attempt to analytically distinguish between and . Such
distinction could reveal the learner misconception. The use of a graphic organizer to
illustrate the concept is also suggested.

4.2. Code switching is defined as the practice of using more than one language in the course of a
single communicative episode or using two languages during conversations. Code switching
implies that a speaker in a multilingual community can switch from one language to another.

4.3. Code switching can be used to explain new concepts, to clarify statements of questions, to
emphasize points, to make connections with learners‟ own context and experience, to maintain
the learners‟ attention, for classroom management and discipline. Teachers can also switch to
mother language when learners have problems in understanding the concepts.