Parents, not enrichment centres, are key to result
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insider:
:goodpost:
Musings,Musings:
.
Instead, these kids need to focus and master the basic skills before we talk about any higher order skills.
If the kids under your care do have some reasonable basic skills, you may actually try to explore using Onsponge's methods to teach them.
If you were to look through the methods, they are a bit like 'dead methods' (死学), ie, see this question, use this method, see that question, use that method, etc.
It depends on your objective in tutoring them. If your objective is to let them to have a better score for maths in PSLE, you may try, but if your objective is to let them have a more flexible brain for sec school maths, then you may have to think again whether to use this short cut. If they manage to see 'patterns' (most of the PSLE maths questions, if you see them long enough, carry 'patterns'), they have a high chance of getting the correct answer. It's a gamble to use heuristics right away with the technique of 'identifying' patterns in questions without further usual thinking process but at least they have a chance to 'gamble' and get it right.
I used to tutor some friends who were hopeless in their maths (or logical thinking skills) during my sec school days. As they were hopeless and I gauged that I was not powerful enough to make them understand concepts (I was young then at 16), I used 'patterns' to teach them (see this, do this; see that, do that; don't think of any other things). ALL did well enough for their business maths in their O levels at the end...
In some cases, we have to 死马当着活马医. This is the same situation when last minute, many children have to memorise compositions to score for languages... (the children must be able to memorise and apply in the first place else this gamble will not work as well...)
PS:
If the children under your care really having problems with challenging sums and you assess not quite possible for them to understand (whether concepts or heuristics), then you may actually throw these about 10 marks away and focus on other topics like area & parameters, etc. For certain kids, not worth to harp on the 10% challenging problems and missing other 'trees' that maybe easier to climb. Taking exams...most of the time is about 'strategies'... -
Chenonceau:
I oso want you to teach mine leh... just paiseh to ask only!!!!ksi:
By the way, did you notice sth up there......
Just to share a lighter moment with you about my experience, I get PM asking me to teach their children.....of course it is joking but at the end of the day, we know every parent is concerned about this issue after our debate....
Yeah... I know the debate has made the issue salient to many parents. That's why I thought I should write a proper integration post. Unfortunately, we have not had much representation from parents who work and who have no time to teach their kids, so the perspective may still be incomplete.
So many of you very 'solid'.....I like to read them tho sometimes I dun read all nor do I understand all :oops: )
I may not be a good representation....but I'll share my view
I am SAHM....have some time to teach....but can't really teach anymore cos' at P5, things start to look alien to me Anyway, the debate about heuristics......
I am blessed that my 2 kids are pretty strong in Maths right now as their foundations were strong. However, as they learn more and more heuristics (via external enrichment), I noticed that the younger child (who is generally weaker that the elder bro) is showing signs that she is just applying the method without any thinking process. Tho most of the time her final answer is correct, I SUDDENLY realsied that sometimes she could not explain the concept/understanding behind.....actually I asked her to explain cos' I dun understand the method she use and wanted to learn more :scared:
I too hold the belief that one must understand the concept first....so looks like I need to sit up & start going through her stuff before she gets stuck this year (P5) -
BeContented:
I agree. Get the foundation strong before you put in heuristics.
I too hold the belief that one must understand the concept first....so looks like I need to sit up & start going through her stuff before she gets stuck this year (P5) -
Chenonceau:
Yup! I was referring to you. Could it be that you learnt from DS1 so you could help DS2?[/quote]haha...not really. I wasn't \"kiasu\" enough in ds1's time to know there was \"top school exam papers\" and there wasn't many good maths assessments (such as Maths Olympiad books) available at Popular.
If you are referring to me based on my earlier post, just to clarify, my ds1 attended TLL maths in upper primary but my ds2 never attended any maths tuition before. I am grateful to TLL for helping build a strong maths foundation for ds1 but it is not always necessary.wonderm:
[quote=\"Chenonceau\"]At least one parent has children who did well in Math without Onsponge. That is my other bug bear. These books are EXPENSIVE. But this parent (who did not use Onsponge)
(1) sent her kids to The Learning Lab (which is even more expensive than buying the Onsponge book).
(2) is herself good at Math. -
wonderm:
haha...not really. I wasn't \"kiasu\" enough in ds1's time to know there was \"top school exam papers\" and there wasn't many good maths assessments (such as Maths Olympiad books) available at Popular.
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:siam: The question is how to build a strong foundation for the children? I hope I'm not offending anybody but there's a serious flaw in the way Maths is taught in schools. Most of my students have problems understanding the basic concepts, not to mention moving on to heuristics. :siam: How do most schools teach fractions - numerators and denominators? How about X more than Y is _______? Z is ______ less than X? When they see problem sums in lower primary, they would have 'switch off' already reason being that they find it very difficult. I've throughout the years devised my own methods of teaching and even have students at the verge of failing in P3 getting above 90 for P4. My methods are designed in such a way that the children find it very easy to understand the concepts and drawing models step by step. By the time they take their PSLE, even very weak students who really do not have a talent in Maths (yes, you need talent as well) manage to get a decent pass cos at least they applied what insider has mentioned earlier - i.e. memorising - which is the last resort.
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coast:
Teachers do make a difference. I am sure there are many students who benefit from teachers whether they are from school, enrichment or tuition. I sincerely salute all those teachers who have made a difference to their students! By all means give credit to the individual teacher. But if it is the \"fantastic\" worksheets from the centres, then we need to ask ... why can't MOE provide adequate materials to ALL students? Why parents need to visit Popular, KSP and other places to source for external assessment, resources, ... etc? Why some schools give different materials to different classes? The key reason I am writing this ... we need to make it as much a level playing field for every student as possible .. not dependent on extensive parent coaching, enrichment materials, ...
coast ,
I was exactly at the same thinking when DS is your DS age etc,
over time ....the system give you no choice but tuition due to
no time , pretty exhausted after a days work etc..
and the system with Parents , schoolwork load etc
create a very 'unlevel\" playing field .... enrichment and
add help is a good boost to marks and save efforts on the parents and child research work .
Actually - the workload the children now have entails a parents child
study group because with CCA and what have you , it just not possible
to cramp all that in the 8 waking hours a day
Our education have somewhat become a Elite system ...over time
coast - observe it over time and you know what I mean...
Parents/grading of school/ tuition etc create the standard of the education system as a whole.....the harder the push the higher the
standard goes.. :faint:
If you have an independent inquisitive ready to learn child .
good luck ...you will beat the system without any help :hi5:
ENJOY the journey...its an education in itself -
Agree that understanding of concept is important before learning to use heuristics. And for some kids who don’t do well in problem sums, the issue could be well be language skills and understanding before we even go to the step of which method to apply. So would think certainly heuristics is not a magic pill or a cure all for all children who do badly in Maths. But it may help those who already have a good foundation.
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linden2000:
Agree that understanding of concept is important before learning to use heuristics. And for some kids who don't do well in problem sums, the issue could be well be language skills and understanding before we even go to the step of which method to apply. So would think certainly heuristics is not a magic pill or a cure all for all children who do badly in Maths. But it can help those who already have a good foundation.
Linden2000 and I have very similar experiences indeed. Both our kids failed Paper 2 in early P5 and were much helped by heuristics. But both our kids were already good at Math in P4. -
tutormum:
:siam: The question is how to build a strong foundation for the children? I hope I'm not offending anybody but there's a serious flaw in the way Maths is taught in schools. Most of my students have problems understanding the basic concepts, not to mention moving on to heuristics. :siam: How do most schools teach fractions - numerators and denominators? How about X more than Y is _______? Z is ______ less than X? When they see problem sums in lower primary, they would have 'switch off' already reason being that they find it very difficult. I've throughout the years devised my own methods of teaching and even have students at the verge of failing in P3 getting above 90 for P4. My methods are designed in such a way that the children find it very easy to understand the concepts and drawing models step by step. By the time they take their PSLE, even very weak students who really do not have a talent in Maths (yes, you need talent as well) manage to get a decent pass cos at least they applied what insider has mentioned earlier - i.e. memorising - which is the last resort.
Precisely this is the group that would dash for tuition cos there is no choice if what is taught in school simply is not getting through. And this is the group that is of concern if it is growing in size. MOE needs to study what is contributing to this problem eg:
1. Math language skills? I used to have these scholastics books I bought from a friend which I innocently let my child read for pleasure. In hindsight, perhaps these books helped my child understand the language of Math better. I only browsed those books but I vaguely remember they are written in Math language. Maybe should get the children to read such books to get it into their system.
2. Is Timeline to learn certain concepts realistic?
How much time is required on average for the mastery of certain Math skills? Are the children given enough time to learn them or we rush because we try to do many more things to make the education look holistic? Also, all children enter P1 with different background....
3. Foundation for Basic Computation Skills Missing?
4. Not enjoying the lesson?
Why?
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