First professional experience visit

Reflect on your first professional experience visit. What mathematics did you see, hear, read? Why do you think the classroom is set up the way it is for mathematics learning?

My first professional experience day was a mix of emotions and experiences. I was placed in a year 2 class who were very welcoming and just as excited that I was observing them as I was. Due to an assembly, the classes maths lesson was cut short. However, I was still able to participate and learn the established structure of maths lessons and the teachers approach to presenting problems and demonstrate thinking skills. The lesson was introducing fractions at a higher level (previously learnt halves). Their teacher Ms P (for the sake of privacy) posed two questions to the students…

Miss Y ate two out of three slices of pizza. What is the fraction of pizza slices she ate?

Ms P ate three out of four slices of pizza. What is the fraction of pizza slices she ate?

The students were given some ‘hard thinking time’ (as Ms P calls it) to work out the question themselves this reflects Greenes, Ginsburg and Balfanz’s suggestion to “Encourage thinking like a mathematician” (2004). I was instructed not to help the students during this time which I found very difficult. The students were then asked to write the fraction in their books as well as draw the pizza, shading the eaten slices. I was instructed to help one of the struggling students. I noticed colourful displays of maths in the classroom and the lesson I witnessed was very visual and engaging for the students. Park and Brannon state that “Visual mathematics is an important part of mathematics for its own sake and new brain research tells us that visual mathematics even helps students learn numerical mathematics.” (2013). As a future teacher, I need to consider the effects ‘hard thinking time’ (allowing the students to solve the problem themselves before the teacher explains it) and the importance of visual learning when creating my lessons.

References:

• Greenes, C., Ginsburg, H. P., & Balfanz, R. (2004). Big math for little kids. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 19(1), 159-166.http://ezproxy.acu.edu.au/login?url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2004.01.010
  

• Park, J., & Brannon, E. (2013). Visual Math Improves Math Performance. Retrieved from https://www.youcubed.org/resources/visual-math-improves-math-performance/