Sunday, 7 April 2013

BLOG 1 - CPA Approach

 
While growing up I had heard from my parents ,relatives and older student who have already been through math s that math is tough. Personally... I think that Math is cool but sometimes  because of all the lessons with complicated problems and formulas that I don't even understand that made me gave up on the subject. 

Currently , Teachers impart problem solving strategies through the Concrete-Pictorial-Abstract (CPA) approach to all pupils. CPA approach particularly effective with students who have mathematics difficulties, mainly because it moves gradually from actual objects through pictures and then to symbol. A principal in one of  the Primary school observe that pupils, even the weaker ones, become more engaged, participative and develop a positive attitude towards the subject. Children need a lot of time to manipulate the problems, solve them, and find multiple ways to represent the problems  and answers.

It is based on Jerome Bruner contribution in the 1960's. Each stage of mathematics builds upon what was learned before. For complete success, teachers should take time to ensure that each child masters a set of skills before moving on to a new topic. Math skills can be seen as a set of building blocks, in which each one must be stable and secure before the next skill block is added. Scaffolding can be as simple as when a teacher introduces a new lesson by asking the children to describe what they already know about the subject, or reviews key concepts at the end of a lesson. Visual scaffolding relies extensively on the use of visual aides in a lesson.

Teachers needed to have a solid grasp of mathematics for teaching or an in-depth knowledge of the specific math needed for their classes and how to make it understandable to students. Children are likely to do better in mathematics if their teachers are knowledgeable in mathematics. Children use math to help make sense of the world. Teachers need to build upon this natural interest, providing children with in-depth opportunities and time to use math materials and ideas.

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