Math Early Childhood - Assignment Example

Math Early Childhood Windows, Dinos, and Ants Video Questions 1. He made sure the students took part in the tasks, in groups and individually. This made them own the whole process and they wilfully made contributions on the same. They contributed in groups and made presentations to the class. This improved their public speaking abilities. 2. Advantage: The student chose instruments they were conversant with to create an ease of understanding. This made them contribute to every step they were taken through. They could easily read the graphs and make formulas used to determine animal population. Disadvantage: the only disadvantage is that the students get preoccupied with the process till the teacher gets less control of what they are doing. Groups have group think especially when formed by students sharing the same interests. Groups used different materials to create variety of ideas since students have cognisance of different objects. 3. He uses variety of graphical representation techniques for instance: maps, number line and scales. This enhances flexibility in learning since the student gets different ideas resulting in a general understanding. He set the students free to move around and be comfortable when working on the estimates. 4. By the use of number line to allocate the point at which the animal counts they have estimated rests. They used rulers and maps to estimate the size of geographical regions under survey. Measurement at the number could have been enhanced by drawing a straight line then marking different points of equidistant from one another. 5. As seen in the results, there are two results which have close estimates. According to the rule of probability, the two close ones are closer to the real value. I would then take an average of the two as the final estimate. How Long is a Minute Video Questions 1. Advantage: the concept of time as a measure of duration enables the students get a background information of how the inventors came up with this gadget. This enhances their creativity as seen in the way they enjoy the exercises. Disadvantage: introducing the concept of time goes into intricate details which might be too difficult for young students to understand. Their mind is also diverted from the overall goal which is time reading. Going straight to reading time creates an ease of comprehension. 2. They counted the second hand after every five seconds to note how many of them are there in a minute. This was done under the teacher’s guidance and they shouted along. This counted till they reached 60 thereby knowing how many seconds are there in a minute. 3. This shows the effect of speed in determining how quick a task is conducted. This is because one student realized that the one writing was doing so fast to do a lot of lines in a minute. 4. They then use tools they are used to so they can better understand the subject being passed across. Choosing these tools also made them feel part of the process thereby owning and controlling the exercise. This improved their participation. 5. She improved their involvement in class as they were in control. This role acting increases student interest as they feel like the teacher in the process. The downside of this is that the students might get absorbed in this and forget the actual objectives of the class. Analysis Questions 1. They had a practical feel in the learning process and were able to use the tools chosen by themselves. They were comfortable using estimates and measurements to determine the number of animals in a given region in the first case. The teacher allowed them to participate by marking on the number line the points at which values fall. They had varying markings but were able to correct one another by defending the right choices. In the second test, the teacher first asked them their opinions on what can be done in a minute to introduce them to the topic. She then engaged them in three varying exercises to increase sample area, this creates different values that is used to estimate time. 2. The teacher allowed them to control the lesson by inviting them to the black wall to show the class, by illustration, what they thought were the right estimates. The groups made presentations of their overall results which they all participated in arriving at. 3. As a follow-up on the effectiveness of the first lesson; I would switch the activities given to each group in the first lesson to see if there is mastery of intricate concepts used to estimate animal population. For instance, I change the seasons to see how they interpret how this will affect animal population. 4. The first challenge is controlling the activities the students are engaged in, especially if it is a highly populated class under a single teacher who has to move in all the groups. Students tend to be unruly when the teacher concentrates elsewhere. The second challenge is that since the students use a variety of tools to come up with the results, they may be confused in the process because they involve the mind deeply to absorb all the concepts being analysed. The last challenge is that weak students tend to hide under groups, giving low participation to the process. The teacher has to make sure everyone is on board by occasionally asking questions to validate that fact (Jaworski & Wood, 2008). References Jaworski, B., & Wood, T. L. (2008). The mathematics teacher educator as a developing professional. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. Read More