WeekOneTeamWorkEditTwo Essay

From birth, it is important for practitioners to support the early years’ mathematical development. Children learn emergent maths which is a “term used to describe children construct mathematics from birth” (Geist, 2010). The Early Years Statuary Frameworks (EYFS) (Department of Education) states that maths is one of the specific areas.

Algebra is a critical aspect of mathematics which provides the means to calculate unknown values. According to Bednarz, Kieran and Lee (as cited in Chick & Harris, 2007), there are three basic concepts of simple algebra: the generalisation of patterns, the understanding of numerical laws and functional situations. The understanding of these concepts by children will have an enormous bearing on their future mathematical capacity. However, conveying these algebraic concepts to children can be difficult due to the abstract symbolic nature of the math that will initially be foreign to the children. Furthermore, each child’s ability to recall learned numerical laws is vital to their proficiency in problem solving and mathematical confidence. It is obvious that teaching algebra is not a simple task. Therefore, the importance of quality early exposure to fundamental algebraic concepts is of significant importance to allow all

Children use numbers with daily activities eg. Songs. They also develop a range of flexible methods for working mentally with numbers. For example, when playing number games and flash cards.

·  Identify the type of chart or graph and what this type of chart or graph usually depicts. Pie charts, for example, show portions of the whole and line charts show trends over time.

Numeracy development is important for all children as maths is an important part of everyday life. The way in which maths is taught has changed greatly over the years. When I was at school we were taught one method to reach one answer. Now, particularly in early primary phase, children are taught different methods to reach an answer, which includes different methods of working out and which also develops their investigation skills. For example, by the time children reach year six, the different methods they would have been taught for addition would be number lines,

Van de Walle, J, Karp, K. S. & Bay-Williams, J. M. (2015). Elementary and Middle School Mathematics Teaching Developmentally. (9th ed.). England: Pearson Education Limited.

In the article, “13 Rules That Expire,” by Karen S. Karp, Sarah B. Bush, and Barbara J. Dougherty, the three authors discuss thirteen of the most commonly used tricks, tips, and strategies that do not promote a full understanding of mathematics. Furthermore, this promotion of shortcuts and alternatives that are commonly steering children to misunderstandings as they grow and expand their knowledge in a higher level atmosphere. These strategies are that discussed in the article are taught in elementary and middle school levels. However, once these rules are taught and established they tend to expire around grade seven and up when children start learning complex multistep problems. The overall content of the article is accurate when

Every day, mathematics is used in our lives. From playing sports or games to cooking, these activities require the use of mathematical concepts. For young children, mathematical learning opportunities are all around them. Knaus (2013) states that ‘Young children are naturally curious and eager to learn about their surroundings and the world they live in’ (pg.1). Children, young and old, and even adults, learn when they explore, play and investigate. By being actively involved, engaging in activities that are rich, meaningful, self-directed and offer problem solving opportunities, children given the chance to make connections with their world experiences (Yelland, Butler & Diezmann, 1999). As an educator of young children,

You need to be able to use different strategies and resources in order to develop mathematical skills in young children, you can do this through focused activities as well as using the learning environment to stimulate children’s learning.

Standards for Mathematical Practice Kindergarten- Grade 12; Measurement and Data: Work with time and money.

To begin with, before studying this English module, my skills in presenting information in chart format was insufficient. In this visual literacy assignment, students were evaluated on their ability to interpret illustrations as well as various kinds of data and the presentation thereof in a meaning full way. Compared with the first assignment, I scored the highest mark for this one. However, the course material gave me the much-needed background information on creating a meaningful analysis of vast sets of data. For example, the type of data presented in a pie chart will be different from the data presented in a bar or line chart. This was incredibly beneficial information and provided me a new perspective on the creating of charts. Consequently,

Unknowingly, mathematics are being taught since early childhood. Effective early childhood mathematics teaching is much more challenging. This is because mathematics is fundamental where many people assume it takes little understanding to teach it. Children are perfectly capable of coping with these ideas. Additional, they need to do so to develop the kind of vigorous understanding that will not decay under the necessary memorization of number, words and symbols that is to come in kindergarten. In preschool, before there is really any opportunity for “procedural” mathematics, it is important for the children to have ample opportunity to think about mathematics conceptually.

Geist, E. (2009). Children are Born Mathematicians: Supporting Development in Young Children, (1st ed., pp. 398). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Multiplicative thinking is imperative to a child’s understanding of important mathematical concepts and is seen as the ‘big idea’ in number that links multiple key ideas and strategies (Vergnaud, as cited in Siemon, 2011). Commonly, children have a procedural based view of multiplicative thinking which can hinder progress, as opposed to a more conceptual view which is a far better learning framework (Hurst & Hurrell, 2016). If teachers are to maximise a child’s learning, they must acknowledge this and help children maintain a conceptual understanding of multiplicative thinking and emphasise this much more so than procedural rules. Several key ideas and strategies underpin the success of multiplicative thinking and a greater conceptual understanding.

Markwell (2012) states that seeing methods of growing patterns and its structure are useful ways of counting. Ways of counting is the second teaching method for calculating functional relationships from the dependent variable. More advanced geometric patterns are a useful analysis towards identifying a way of seeing that leads to a way of counting which is important for students. Markwell (2012) further highlights that a two-column graph draws upon a vertical relationship in the right-hand column. It is then noted that this will promote recursive thinking as it highlights only the dependent variable and its progression. To developing a high functional thinking, it is required to understand the horizontal relationship between independent and dependant variables. Markwell (2012) highlights the third teaching strategy would be to introduce a three-column graph with calculations in the middle which enables students to understand functional relationships (words, symbols and variables), this methods leads to understanding geometric ways of seeing and numerical ways of counting. Effectively three-column tables will enable students to connect the independent and dependent variable in an explicit functional relationship.