Primary teachers enhance math teaching knowledge
06-September-2013
Primary school teachers are benefitting from a five-day training workshop geared at developing an early childhood mathematics training programme.
The workshop, taking place at the Ministry of Education hall, is being conducted by a senior lecturer from SEED Institute Singapore, Mona Tan.
The proposed training programme comprises two parts – math workshop, and needs analysis and workshop for child minders.
The objective of the training is to give teachers the opportunity to explore profoundly on the ways children learn mathematics and the different approaches that teachers can use. Furthermore it is also looking at ways of developing learning programmes that is sequential, hence adapting to real life or concrete experience before abstract is used.
The training is also targeting to create an environment that promotes the learning of mathematics and examines the various strategies appropriate to evaluate learning in small children.
The benefit behind such training is that it opens up opportunities for teachers to enhance their professional development as the ones guiding and facilitating learning of the children. This will enable for better results in children at school.
“The main purpose of this training is to shift paradigm strategies so that teachers will not just be teaching mathematics but also having fun teaching it. This training will explore new strategies that they can use to teach mathematics, making use of natural resources found in nature, hence applicable to Seychelles therefore making it easier for kids to relate to. So by encouraging teachers to make use of what they have and not using just paper and pencil will enable them and their pupils to explore, talk and listen from a new approach,” said Ms Tan.
The topics that the teachers are being exposed to are targeting different teaching strategies of how daily life activities can be used or included into mathematics lessons such as how to identify mathematics concepts in for example matching activities, therefore how to apply it to learning to integrate matching concepts in teaching mathematics to young children.
Ministry of Education’s curriculum development officer Ina Felix pointed out that the workshop “is a training of trainers engaged in professional development. The teachers will then be used as facilitators by the ministry to create professional development for others”.
She added that the training is one among a series of activities being done to promote the learning of mathematics, hence targeting all involved to make the learning of mathematics fun so that children can enjoy learning it.
In the second part of the series of activities already programmed, Ms Felix noted that they will be spending one week promoting mathematics by having a mathematics diagnostic centre, mathematics clinic and also a centre for mathematics enhancement programme whereby parents and children will be given a tool to use to consolidate the various mathematics concepts learned. This will be followed by an exhibition at the National Library.
The teachers during one of the sessions
0 comments :
Post a Comment