Course-5 Understanding Disciplines and School Subjects pmd

Maths Education at Primary & Upper Primary School
In the lowest classes,
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Activities with concrete objects form the first step in the classroom to enable
the child to understand the connections between the logical functioning of their
everyday lives to that of mathematical thinking.
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Operations on natural numbers usually form a major part of primary math-
ematics syllabi.
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However, the standard algorithms of addition, subtraction, multiplication and
division of whole numbers in the curriculum have tended to occupy a domi-
nant role in these. This tends to happen at the expense of development of num-
ber sense and skills of estimation and approximation.
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Operations should be introduced contextually. This should be followed by the
development of language and symbolic notation, with the standard algorithms
coming at the end rather than the beginning of the treatment.
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Making simple comparisons and classifications along one dimension at a time,
and identifying shapes and symmetries, are appropriate skills to acquire at this
stage. Encouraging children to use language to freely express one's thoughts
and emotions, rather than in predetermined ways, is extremely important at
this and at later stages.
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Mathematical games , puzzles and stories involving number are useful to en-
able children to make these connections and to build upon their everyday un-
derstandings.
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