My Refection - workshop 1

MY REFLECTION

When I was in primary school, math was never a subject of my favourite. I view mathematics as something boring and difficult as to solve a mathematical problem, one need to remember the formula. Without the formula, you are hopeless in solving math prob. Due to that kind of mindset being set in me; I take math for granted as I’m not good in memorizing. However, when I was in secondary school, my view towards math had changed. My additional mathematics teacher proved to me that learning math is not like crossing a river on stepping stone in which there is only one way to go. It is indeed important to understand the concept of the math itself rather than memorize it as that formula is derived from the concept. She shows to me that doing a math problem is like finding your way through a maze. There are lots of possible pathways to go down. She makes sure that I understand the concept, for example the concept of function rather than memorizing the formula. From my understanding of the concept, I derived my own formula to solve it, thus making math more fun to me. As my lecture raise up this question about how you view mathematics learning on my first workshop, that’s my story. Thanks to my additional mathematics’ teacher, I found excitement in solving mathematics problem. For me now, learning math is like exploring an unknown country. The choices of where to go and what to do lies in our hand.

In relation to mathematics exploration in early childhood, teachers play an important role in introducing the world of mathematics to the children. Based on my personal experience, I strongly believe that teacher’s approach and method determines a child’s interest in a subject. This is in line with what proposed by Irons (1999) who states activities or approach used by the teacher is remarkably contribute to the excitement of the lesson. Therefore, teachers should be creative in the classroom. Hereby, that point is something that I’m going to bear in mind!!