Mathematics has always been one of the core subjects of learners that they need

to take in order to develop their life-long skills and knowledge and to integrate it
to various educational disciplines. From counting their fingers, to counting their
moneys, and then solving problems using their critical thinking. However, a good
mathematics teacher does not only give instructions on how the problems were
solved but to also inculcate why problems need to be solved and how this would
help not only to themselves but for other people as well.
As a Math Teacher, one has to be equipped with all the knowledge and
proficiency needed in teaching Advanced Mathematics. In order to create and
improve our teaching skills, we must have the sufficient knowledge of the subject
itself. Because knowledge of the content to be taught is the cornerstone of
teaching for proficiency, we begin with it. There is a substantial body of research
on teachers’ mathematical knowledge, and teachers’ knowledge of mathematics
is prominent in discussions of how to improve mathematics instruction. Improving
teachers’ mathematical knowledge and their capacity to use it to do the work of
teaching is crucial in developing students’ mathematical proficiency. Another
thing to consider is the knowledge students. We must assess ourselves on how
well we know our leaners’ class standing in terms of learning Mathematics as it is
our principle to leave no child behind. Knowledge of students includes both
knowledge of the particular students being taught and knowledge of students’
learning in general. Knowing one’s own students includes knowing who they are,
what they know, and how they view learning, mathematics, and themselves. The
teacher needs to know something of each student’s personal and educational
background, especially the mathematical skills, abilities, and dispositions that the
student brings to the lesson. The teacher also needs to be sensitive to the unique
ways of learning, thinking about, and doing mathematics that the student has
developed. Each student can be seen as located on a path through school
mathematics, equipped with strengths and weaknesses, having developed his or
her own approaches to mathematical tasks, and capable of contributing to and
profiting from each lesson in a distinctive way. Knowledge in Classroom Practice, a
teacher should always know what and how to plan out various strategic
classroom instructions to make the teaching-learning engagement between the
teacher and learners meaningful. Knowing classroom practice means knowing
what is to be taught and how to plan, conduct, and assess effective lessons on
that mathematical content. It includes a knowledge of learning goals as expressed
in the curriculum and a knowledge of the resources at one’s disposal for helping
students reach those goals. It also includes skill in organizing one’s class to create
a community of learners and in managing classroom discourse and learning
activities so that everyone is engaged in substantive mathematical work. This type
of knowledge is gained through experience in classrooms and through analyzing
and reflecting on one’s own practice and that of others.
Teaching is a complex activity and, like other complex activities, can be conceived
in terms of similar components. Just as mathematical proficiency itself involves
interwoven strands, teaching for mathematics requires similarly interrelated
components. According to a report titled “Adding it up: Helping Children Learn
Mathematics,” there five components in teaching mathematics proficiently:
Concept Understanding
One of the defining features of conceptual understanding is that knowledge must
be connected so that it can be used intelligently. Teachers need to make
connections within and among their knowledge of mathematics, students, and
pedagogy.
The kinds of knowledge that make a difference in teaching practice and in
students’ learning are an elaborated, integrated knowledge of mathematics, a
knowledge of how students’ mathematical understanding develops, and a supply
of pedagogical practices that take into account the mathematics being taught and
how students learn it. The implications for teacher preparation and professional
development are that teachers need to acquire these forms of knowledge in ways
that forge connections between them.
This grounding in reality allows knowledge of mathematics and knowledge of
students to be connected in ways that make a difference for instruction and for
learning. It is not enough, however, for mathematical knowledge and knowledge
of students to be connected; both need to be connected to classroom practice.
Teachers may know mathematics, and they may know their students and how
they learn. But they also have to know how to use both kinds of knowledge
effectively in the context of their work if they are to help their students develop
mathematical proficiency.
Alternative forms of teacher education and professional development that
attempt to teach mathematical content, psychology of learning, and methods of
teaching need to be developed and evaluated to see whether prospective and
practicing teachers from such programs can draw appropriate connections and
apply the knowledge they have acquired to teach mathematics effectively.
Instructional Routines
Another one is the development of instructional routines. Just as students who
have acquired procedural fluency can perform calculations with numbers
efficiently, accurately, and flexibly with minimal effort, teachers who have
acquired a supply of instructional routines can readily draw upon them as they
interact with students in teaching mathematics. Some routines concern classroom
management, such as how to get the class started each day and procedures for
correcting and collecting homework. Other routines are more grounded in
mathematical activity. For example, teachers need to know how to respond to a
student who gives an answer the teacher does not understand or who
demonstrates a serious misconception. They need to know how to deal with
students who lack critical prerequisite skills for the day’s lesson. Teachers need
businesslike ways of dealing with situations like these that occur on a regular
basis so that they can devote more of their attention to the more serious issues
facing them. When teachers have several ways of approaching teaching problems,
they can try a different approach if one does not work.
Researchers have shown that expert teachers have various routines at their
disposal. They can choose among a number of approaches for teaching a given
topic or responding to a situation that arises in their classes. Expert teachers not
only have access to a range of routines, they also can apply them flexibly, know
when they are appropriate, and can adapt them to fit different situations.
Strategic Competence
Another one is strategic competence. Although teachers need a range of routines,
teaching is very much a problem-solving activity. Like other professionals,
teachers are constantly faced with decisions in planning instruction, implementing
those plans, and interacting with students. Useful guidelines are seldom available
for figuring out what to teach when, how to teach it, how to adapt material so
that it is appropriate for a given group of students, or how much time to allow for
an activity. On the spot, teachers need to find out what a student knows, choose
how to respond to a student’s question or statement, and decide whether to
follow a student’s idea. These are problems that every teacher faces every day,
and most do not have readymade solutions.
Conceptual understanding of the knowledge required to teach for proficiency can
help equip teachers to deal intelligently with these problems. It is misleading to
claim that teachers actually solve such problems in the sense of solving a
mathematical problem. There is never an ideal solution to the more difficult
problems of teaching, but teachers can learn to contend with these problems in
reasonable ways that take into account the mathematics that students are to
learn; what their students understand and how they may best learn it; and
representations, activities, and teaching practices that have proven most effective
in teaching the mathematics in question or that have been effective in teaching
related topics.
Teacher education and professional development programs that take into
account the strategic decision making in teaching can help prepare teachers to be
more effective in solving instructional problems. Rather than being designed to
resolve teachers’ problems, programs of teacher education and professional
development can engage prospective and practicing teachers in the analysis of
instructional problems and potential ways of dealing with them. Teachers can
learn to recognize that teaching involves solving problems and that they can
address these problems in reasonable and intelligent ways.
Adaptive Reasoning
Another is adaptive reasoning. Teachers can learn from their teaching by
analyzing it: the difficulties their students have encountered in learning a
particular topic; what the students have learned; how the students responded to
particular representations, questions, and activities; and the like. Teachers can
become reflective practitioners, and reflection is essential in improving their
practice. The focus of teachers’ reflection and the tools they use shape the nature
of that reflection and affect whether, what, and how they learn from it.
One of the ways that the professional development programs described foster
teachers’ ability to justify and explain classroom practices is that teachers
examine familiar artifacts from practice, and those artifacts help them focus their
attention and develop a common language for discussion. Teachers are often
asked to pose a particular mathematical problem to their classes and to discuss
the mathematical thinking that they observe.
Productive Disposition
One more is a productive disposition about one’s own knowledge, practice, and
learning. Just as students must develop a productive disposition toward
mathematics such that they believe that mathematics makes sense and that they
can figure it out, so too must teachers develop a similar productive disposition.
Teachers should think that mathematics, their understanding of children’s
thinking, and their teaching practices fit together to make sense and that they are
capable of learning about mathematics, student mathematical thinking, and their
own practice themselves by analyzing what goes on in their classes. Teachers
whose learning becomes generative perceive themselves as in control of their
own learning. They learn by listening to their students and by analyzing their
teaching practices. Not only do they develop more elaborated conceptions of how
students’ mathematical thinking develops by listening to their students, but they
also learn mathematical concepts and strategies from their interactions with
students. The teachers become more comfortable with mathematical ideas and
ripe for a more systematic view of the subject.
Teachers whose learning becomes generative see themselves as lifelong learners
who can learn from studying curriculum materials and from analyzing their
practice and their interactions with students. Programs of teacher education and
professional development that portray to the participants that they are in control
of their own learning help teachers develop a productive disposition toward
learning about mathematics, student mathematical thinking, and teaching
practice. Programs that provide readymade, worked-out solutions to teaching
problems should not expect that teachers will see themselves as in control of
their own learning.
Despite the common myth that teaching is little more than common sense or that
some people are just born teachers, effective teaching practice can be learned.
According to Christopher Hogbin, there are 6 simple yet effective instructional
strategies in teaching, particularly Advanced Mathematics
 1. Prioritize conceptual understanding

For students to use mathematics flexibly and grapple with complex problems,
they need more than memorized facts and procedures.

They need a deep understanding of mathematical concepts themselves.

Here’s how you make conceptual understanding a priority in your classroom:

Use visual strategies

Making a concept visual allows students to see how an abstract concept

translates to a physical scenario. Use illustrated problems or hands-on activities,
and encourage students to use visual methods of their own (e.g. drawing) when
solving problems.

Seeing a problem in different ways also builds the brain’s neural networks,
increasing understanding and retention.

Use the schema approach

The schema is the underlying pattern behind a mathematical concept. All

subtraction problems, for example, revolve around a certain amount of something
being taken away from an original amount. Once students grasp the schema,
they’ll be able to notice it in a diverse array of different problems.

To do this, put similar word problems (e.g. addition ones) side by side and help
students discover what they have in common. See if they can express this in
words that might apply to other problems of the same type.

Explicitly teach the math vocabulary of a concept

Show the different ways a concept might be expressed in words. Addition, for
example, might be expressed as two quantities “together” or a “combined
amount”. Once they broaden their math vocabulary, they’ll be able to use
concepts much more flexibly.

 Here are some fun ways to build mathematical vocab:

 Display words on posters around the classroom.
 Have students bookmark a maths dictionary on their browser (link to ours).
  Have students write down a mathematical word, which they then describe to a
partner without using the word itself. The partner has to guess which mathematical
concept it is.
2. Set meaningful homework that builds on class learning

You hear the bell ring and – in a last-minute panic – yell out an order to complete
exercise 15.2, odd number questions, and every second column.

We’ve all been there. After all your lesson planning, meaningful homework
sometimes slips through the cracks.

But if you integrate homework into your lesson plans, you’ll find it much easier to
set activities that build deep understanding and engage students that much
more.

Think about how your students might reflect on or connect new knowledge at
home, rather than just blindly practicing a process. For example, they could:

 Teach someone else in the family about what they’ve learned

 Find a real-life application of the lesson’s concept somewhere in the home
 Put theory into practice with a hands-on activity (e.g. creating a timetable,
cooking)
 Ask qualitative or ‘value’ questions of family members where appropriate.

3. Use cooperative learning strategies

Cooperative learning has three major benefits in math:

1. It encourages students to verbalize their mathematical thinking, which in turn

gives them greater clarity of thought and self-awareness of their own problem-
solving strategies.
2. Communicating with others exposes students to different mathematical
approaches, which they can use to think more flexibly.
3. It mirrors the way math is done outside the classroom, where people with different
strengths work together to solve challenging real-world problems.

Here’s how you can use cooperative learning strategies effectively in your math
classroom:

The “puzzle pieces” approach to group work

Use the “puzzle pieces” approach, where each learner is given a unique piece of
information to share with the rest of the group to solve a problem. That way every
student has to get involved, and everyone has something to contribute
regardless of ability level. (Tip: find some examples of puzzle piece activities in
our article on enrichment.)

Take time to reflect

Build-in reflection time after a collaborative activity for students to reflect on what
worked, which strategies they found helpful, and how being exposed to other
ways of reasoning has made them think differently.

Be strategic when allocating groups

A mix of ability levels will mean top-level students can consolidate their
understanding by guiding the activity, while others can learn from more
experienced peers. That way, students never miss out on learning, even if they’re
always helping others (in fact, research suggests that teaching others yields the
highest retention of any strategy).

4. Use strategic questioning

Strategic questions can help turn a regular ‘chalk and talk’ lesson into a deep
learning experience, or scaffold learning acting as students advance into more
challenging territory. Try using open-ended questions such as:

“Tell me how you solved that”

Instead of congratulating a student when they get an answer correct and moving
on, ask them to communicate their approach. This achieves two things:

 The student is encouraged to reflect on their own thought process in detail. Instead
of just “doing the math” automatically, they’ll understand exactly the steps they
took – and begin to see how these might be adapted to future, more challenging
problems.
 Other students get the opportunity to see how they could have solved the problem,
even if they struggled to do so originally.

“Is there any other way of solving this?”

Asking students to elaborate on different approaches to the same question

highlights that there is no single, correct way of doing the math. Moreover,
students might discover some new mental math tips or strategies from their peers
that they can use in future activities.

“Does this problem remind you of anything else we’ve done before?”

Before students start shrugging their shoulders in response to an unfamiliar

problem, ask them if it reminds them of anything they’ve done before.

They’ll start to recognize previously encountered concepts underneath the

surface. This habit of checking for familiarity is what produces flexible and agile
mathematical thinkers.

“Where could you use this…” or “where would you see this used in the real
world?”

These questions drive home the relevance of the learning. Instead of procedural
knowledge alone, students will also come away with an understanding of how
to apply that knowledge.
5. Focus on real problem-solving and reasoning
In the world beyond the classroom, mathematics takes the form of complex
problems as opposed to straightforward questions with just one answer. For this
reason, the most effective instruction equips students with the problem-solving
and reasoning skills they’ll need for real life.

But this doesn’t mean an arbitrary word problem with apples and oranges.
Instead, the best problems are real. That means they:
 Are open-ended. Instead of funneling students to a particular solution, keep it open
to different approaches.
 Approximate relevant real-world scenarios, or (even better) invite students to get
hands-on with real items.
 Encourage students to collaborate and explore different perspectives.
 Don’t spell out exactly what students need to do. Let them trial different
procedures until they settle on a strategy that works instead.

6. Use mixed modes of assessment

A variety of formative and summative assessment types will allow you to:

 Assess conceptual learning, as well as fact recall

  Build on what students know, instead of just assessing what they don’t
 Notice gaps in the learning before the final test

Here are some assessment types that provide an alternative to standard timed
testing:

 Reflections
 Portfolios
 Peer assessments
 Interviews
 ‘Teach the class’ activities

To end this discussion, here are some words according to Ma (1999), “One thing is
to study whom you are teaching, the other thing is to study the knowledge you
are teaching. If you can interweave the two things together nicely, you will
succeed…. it seems to be simple when someone talk about it, but when you really
do it, it is very complicated, subtle, and takes a lot of time. It is easy to be an
elementary school teacher, but it is difficult to be a good elementary school
teacher.”
Which is why professional development beyond initial preparation is critical for
developing proficiency in teaching mathematics. It is sacrificial to be a good
teacher since one of the critical resources to be given is time. If teachers are going
engage in inquiry, they need repeated opportunities to try out ideas and
approaches with their students and continuing opportunities to discuss their
experiences with other teachers. These opportunities should not be limited to a
period of a few weeks or months; instead, they should be part of the ongoing
culture of professional practice. Through inquiry into teaching, teacher learning
can become generative, and teachers can continue to learn and grow as
professionals.

WORKSHOP
In this manner, the participants shall create their lesson plan by incorporating the
instructional strategies discussed in line with the Most Essential Learning
Competencies of the Department of Education. Send the output to my email:
emerita.mollenido002@deped.gov.ph on Friday.