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Students ' Misconceptions, Learning Style Preference, Prior Knowledge And Skill Levels

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An example of math journals used in the classroom is adapted for a Stage 1 classroom (Year 2) on the topic of solving two digits addition and subtraction problems MA1-5NA (Appendix A) (NESA, 2017). The math journals will be used before the start of the topic and then again in the middle of the lesson sequence (Appendix B). Using journals before the topic will allow the teacher to identify the students ' misconceptions, learning style preference, prior knowledge and skill levels (McTighe & O 'Connor, 2005). Depending on the students’ academic level, the teacher may differentiate the work in the journal (Appendix C).
The possible responses from the students can be seen in Appendix D. Students who understands the topic would be able to apply …show more content…

Therefore, if most students were unable to solve the problem, this will indicate to the teacher that their pedagogy needs to be adapted for the following lesson. If this were to occur during my Professional Experience, I would need to determine which method most students struggle with and make it my prime focus in the next lesson rather than moving on. If the students struggled with the jump method, an approach that could be undertaken is to use concrete materials to represent the tens and ones so there is no confusion between the place values. Bobis, Mulligan & Lowrie (2013) emphasise that when students use concrete materials, they have a deeper understanding of the content. Another approach is to group together struggling students with students who understood the topic so they can discuss their different strategies. This will promote engaging mathematical discussions which can consolidate everyone’s understanding as well as allowing struggling students to observe their peers strategies resulting in a “greater understanding and the development of more advanced strategies” (Gardner, 2011, p. 48).
Once all students have a clearer understanding of these strategies, the teacher can refer to the numeracy continuum and syllabus as a guide to the next step (Appendix A & E). In this instance, the students will recognise and explain which strategies are more efficient as well as being able to apply these strategies to three

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