Teaching practices that support

student understanding and

learning of challenging topics in
Mathematics
3 September 2022

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 Content
• Motivation
• How to engage students
• Activities to engage
students
• Comics as a pedagogical
tool

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 Importance of Mathematics
• Mathematical concepts, knowledge, skills have many important
applications in people’s everyday lives.

• Mathematics is also an important vehicle for developing problem-

solving, which is crucial for the world we live in.

• Mathematics also many important interdisciplinary applications in

other fields of study.

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 Mathematics and Learners
Students who dislike mathematics tend to display negative attitudes,
negative mathematical experiences, and a lack of confidence, and
subsequently perform at lower levels.

Some of these students may not have experience much success in

Mathematics since early primary school years.

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 Motivation
Motivation is a key element of education and plays a crucial role in the
success and enjoyment of the learning process
(Cruikshank & Sheffield, 1992; Middleton & Spanias, 1999; Ormrod,
2007; Pintrich, 2003; Schunk, 1995; Schunk, Pintrich, & Meece, 2008).
When students are learning with interest, they tend to devote more
attention to the topic and pursue a task with pleasure
(Hidi, & Renninger, 2006; Hidi, 2006).

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 Motivation 1: Real World Application of Mathematics

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 Motivation 1: Real World Application of Mathematics
• Begin a chapter with a real world application – not necessarily solvable at this
time.

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 Motivation 2: Use of humor
• Selected humor is not only healthy, friendly and attention grabbing
but also increases students’ interest and reduces tension and anxiety
(Torok, McMorris, & Lin, 1999).

• Humor is easily infused into cartoons to engage the students to think

of mathematical concepts.

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© 2022 Marshall Cavendish Education. All rights reserved.
 Motivation 3: A little history of mathematics

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 Motivation 4: Mathematics in Real-World
• Even abstract mathematical objects originate from the real-world.
• Use concrete object for the students to “touch”.

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 How to Engage Students 1
• Contextualize the challenging concept into bits that students are excited to
explore.

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 How to Engage Students 1

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 How to Engage Students 2
• Hands-on activities to interpret abstract mathematical objects and operations.

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 How to Engage Students 2

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 How to Engage Students 2
• Hands-on activities to interpret abstract mathematical objects and operations.

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 How to Engage Students 2
• Hands-on activities to interpret abstract mathematical objects and operations.

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 How to Engage Students 3
• Opportunities to look for patterns in addition to the usual explanation by
teachers or textbooks.

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 Activities to Engage Students
• Enable students to discover the formulae:

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 Activities to Engage Students
• Enable students to discover the formulae:

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 Activities to Engage Students

• Skills-based Context-based Performance task

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 Consolidation / Check for Understanding
• Summary of concept map after each chapter

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 Consolidation / Check for Understanding
• Summary of concept map after each chapter

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 Consolidation / Check for Understanding

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 Consolidation / Check for Understanding
• Consolidate through the use of questions

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 Consolidation / Check for Understanding
• Self-assessment Checklist

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 Comics as a
pedagogical tool

Contextualizing mathematics
in an interesting way that
reinforces important
concepts.

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 Comics as a
pedagogical tool

Contextualizing mathematics
in an interesting way that
reinforces important
concepts.

© 2022 Marshall Cavendish Education. All rights reserved.

 Comics as a
pedagogical tool

© 2022 Marshall Cavendish Education. All rights reserved.

 Comics as a
pedagogical tool

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 Comics as a pedagogical tool
• Discuss deep scientific principles using simple comics.

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 Comics as a pedagogical tool
• Incorporate storytelling
• Acting It Out
• Other strategies associated with comics.

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 Conclusion
• Mathematics can be fun if contextualized.
• Students start to see the relevance of mathematics.
• Comics is an important pedagogical tool.

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Thank you

@mceducation

T +65 6213 9300 1 New Industrial Road, Singapore 536196 www.mceducation.com

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