Learning from the Experts! Final Part!

The third and final session that I attended at MOE Excel Fest was on "Making Real World Connections in the Learning of Mathematics", conducted by Zhenghua Primary. This post is to share about the key points that the school shared with the audience, and hopefully, parents who didn't attend the sharing session can learn or find something useful from here. 

Objectives of the Sharing:

• To create awareness that Mathematics occurs in many aspects of everyday life.
• To discover the importance of Mathematics in the real-life situations.
• To reinforce that Mathematics is not just another subject that the students have to prepare for to pass the examinations.

The school also shared a research done by Paul Swan on "I Hate Mathematics", see the points in the following pictures.

The school went on to share how they introduced real life applications of Mathematics in their teaching, and also let the audience experienced the Maths Trails that they created and conducted for their students. For example, they introduced the concept of "Ordinal Number" by asking students what is the 3rd stall from the left in the canteen? 

Overall, it was a great learning experience for me. Looking at what my P1 boy has been tasked to complete in the "I Am A Champ" booklet that his school assigned to them, and when I worked with him to complete the tasks, I'm all the more convinced that they can relate better when it can be applied in real life. For example, the booklet asked the child to list down 10 different ways whereby number(s) is/are used in real life. Through this, he understands that he needs to know his numbers so that he can call home or call his parents, his weight, if he can eat the pack of tidbits by understanding what is expiry date, etc. 

What's my conclusion after attending the sharing sessions conducted at the MOE Excel Fest? Well, they are definitely useful for me to know and understand how I can teach my children for the various subjects, and I would encourage parents, especially if you have children who just started primary school education.

Credits to be given to the school for the sharing. Any opinion reflected in this post is my own, and not related to the school.