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The effect of teacher's scaffolding actions on primary pupils' mathematical understanding of percent
Author
Tan, Chun Ming
Supervisor
Foong, Pui Yee
Abstract
The study is an attempt to investigate the role of the teachers in the mathematics classroom on mathematical understanding. The main aim is to find out how a teacher, through scaffolding actions, would lead to better mathematical understanding of pupils. The second aim is to find out the pupils' opinions of the study on teacher's scaffolding actions. Another aim of the study is to provide teachers with sample lesson plans so that they can incorporate some scaffolding techniques in their lessons that would lead to better mathematical understanding of their pupils.
There is a worldwide reform to shift curricular goals in our mathematics curriculum from one that emphasizes on acquisition of computation skills to one that emphasizes on mathematical understanding. It is hoped that teachers would be convinced of the importance of their role in the mathematics classroom and that they would be able to adapt certain pedagogical strategies to meet the objectives of the new mathematics curriculum.
Mathematical understanding as defined in this study comprises three components that can be clearly delineated into (a) comprehension of basic concepts and application of procedural skills, (b) application of appropriate mathematical reasoning processes towards the solution of open-ended process-oriented problems and (c) communication of mathematical concepts and processes.
Through this study incorporating the defining elements of scaffolding and the accompanying classroom conditions as well as the appropriate scaffolding strategies, we hope that it would lead to better mathematical understanding of pupils. The defining elements of teacher's scaffolding actions are constant diagnosis of pupils' needs, commitment to let pupils do the thinking and gradual removal of support.
From this study, we have found that teacher's scaffolding actions lead to better mathematical understanding in all the above three components of mathematical understanding in standard routine and open-ended process-oriented problems of percent. The pupils have also given positive feedback on this study. It is hoped that this study would provide a start for teachers to examine their own role in the mathematics classroom and how they would be able to achieve the goals as spelt out in the mathematics curriculum.
There is a worldwide reform to shift curricular goals in our mathematics curriculum from one that emphasizes on acquisition of computation skills to one that emphasizes on mathematical understanding. It is hoped that teachers would be convinced of the importance of their role in the mathematics classroom and that they would be able to adapt certain pedagogical strategies to meet the objectives of the new mathematics curriculum.
Mathematical understanding as defined in this study comprises three components that can be clearly delineated into (a) comprehension of basic concepts and application of procedural skills, (b) application of appropriate mathematical reasoning processes towards the solution of open-ended process-oriented problems and (c) communication of mathematical concepts and processes.
Through this study incorporating the defining elements of scaffolding and the accompanying classroom conditions as well as the appropriate scaffolding strategies, we hope that it would lead to better mathematical understanding of pupils. The defining elements of teacher's scaffolding actions are constant diagnosis of pupils' needs, commitment to let pupils do the thinking and gradual removal of support.
From this study, we have found that teacher's scaffolding actions lead to better mathematical understanding in all the above three components of mathematical understanding in standard routine and open-ended process-oriented problems of percent. The pupils have also given positive feedback on this study. It is hoped that this study would provide a start for teachers to examine their own role in the mathematics classroom and how they would be able to achieve the goals as spelt out in the mathematics curriculum.
Date Issued
2002
Call Number
QA135.6 Tan
Date Submitted
2002