Blog # 1 Reflection on Chapter 1 & 2

           Preschool teachers may feel inadequate in teaching phonics or shy away from music & movement,  but very rare you find teachers have problem in teaching mathematics. Afterall, how hard can it be to teach pre-school counting on and counting back, reading the clock, and forming ABAB pattern?  

          That was the thinking before I read the text for the Elementary Mathematics module. Chapter 1 and 2 set the standard and laid down the foundation of mathematic teaching for all professional educators. To teach mathematics, we need to know the mathematic content well, demonstrate persistence in the process of investigation, develop positive attitude towards the subject, ready to unlearn and relearn mathematics concepts and be reflective in one's teaching strategies and practices. It doesn't sound easy now.

         Just as educational  philosophy affects the deposition of a teacher, our believe in how mathematic is learned greatly affects the way we conduct our lessons. I personally think that both the constructive theory and the sociocultural theory explain well how children learn mathematics and the role of teacher in their learning. In the constructivist theroy, a teacher's responsibility is to provide a conducive learning environment which stimulates sensory experiences and increase exposure to physical surrounding. In the sociocultural theory, teachers need to know a child's current stage of cognitive development and scaffold him/her in the zone of proxmal develpment (ZPD). Mathematics should be introduced and taught in a systematic manner to help children build up their understanding of mathematic theories and allow self exploration of the ideas to achieve relational understanding  rather than emphasizing on the procedural proficiency that only resulted in mechanical steps of getthing the answers without understanding and connection with other mathematics concepts.

          As I reflected on my own teaching, I found myself
1. overly directive - children do not have much opportunity to exercise their thinking and problem solving   skills.
2. lack of a systematical and well thought through teaching strategies to guide children's conceptual  development
3. always hard pressed for time to scaffold individual especially those who are above class average.


          As preschool educators, we should not take teaching mathematics too lightly. Many of us are "victim" of mathematics drills in our early days of learning and thus missed out the opportunity to embrace mathematics and develop a love for the subject. We are here so we would not make the same mistake on our next generation.