B.

ED EXAM 2013---VII PAPER DATED---22/6/13 METHODOLOGY OF TEACHING MATHEMATICS SEC----A ANS---1---Perceptions of the nature and role of mathematics held by our society have a major influence on the development of school mathematics curriculum, instruction, and research. The understanding of different conceptions of mathematics is as important to the development and successful implementation of programs in school mathematics as it is to the conduct and interpretation of research studies. mathematics as a dynamic, growing field of study. Other conceptions of the subject define mathematics as a static discipline, with a known set of concepts, principles, and skills .The rapid growth of mathematics and its applications over the past 50 years has led to a number of scholarly essays that examine its nature and its importance . This literature has woven a rich mosaic of conceptions of the nature of mathematics, ranging from axiomatic structures to generalized heuristics for solving problems. These diverse views of the nature of mathematics also have a pronounced impact on the ways in which our society conceives of mathematics and reacts to its ever-widening influence on our daily lives. Many educated persons, especially scientists and engineers, harbor an image of mathematics as akin to a tree of knowledge: formulas, theorems, and results hang like ripe fruits to be plucked by passing scientists to nourish their theories. Mathematicians, in contrast, see their field as a rapidly growing rain forest, nourished and shaped by forcesoutside mathematics while contributing to human civilization a rich and everchanging variety of intellectual flora and fauna. These differences in perception are due primarily to the steep and harsh terrain of abstract language that separates the mathematical rain forest from the domain of ordinary human activity.Research shows that these differing conceptions have an influence on the ways in which both teachers and mathematicians approach the teaching and development of mathematics . Mathematics as a dynamic discipline, constantly changing as a result of new discoveries from experimentation and application . These contrasting views of the nature and source of mathematical knowledge have provided a continuum for conceptions of mathematics since the age of the Greeks. The lack of a common philosophy of mathematics has serious ramifications for both the practice and teaching of mathematics.This lack of consensus, some argue, is the reason that differing philosophies are not even discussed. Others conjecture that these views are transmitted to students and help shape their ideas about the nature of mathematics What follows is an overview of these conceptions of mathematics and their current and potential impact on the nature and course of mathematics education.

Discussions of the nature of mathematics date back to the fourth century BC. Among the first major contributors to the dialogue were Plato and his student, Aristotle. Plato took the position that the objects of mathematics had an existence of their own, beyond the mind, in the external world. In doing so,Plato drew clear distinctions between the ideas of the mind and their representations perceived in the world by the senses. This caused Plato to draw distinctions between arithmetic-the theory of numbers-and logistics-the techniques of computation required by businessmen. In the Republic (1952a), Plato argued that the study of arithmetic has a positive effect on individuals,compelling them to reason about abstract numbers. Plato consistently held to this view, showing indignation at technicians'use of physical arguments to "prove" results in applied settings.For Plato, mathematics came to "be identical with philosophy for modern thinkers, though they say that it should be studied for the sake of other things" (Aristotle, 1952, p. 510). This elevated position for mathematics as an abstract mental activityon externally existing objects that have only representations in the sensual world is also seen in Plato's discussion of the five regular solid~ in Timaeus (1952b) and his support and encouragement of the mathematical development of Athens. ANS---2--Lesson plan prepares a lot of importance and benefit to the teachers and learners. Hence, here there are following importance that included in lesson plan.First, lesson plan shows the importance in teacher parts. Mostly, teachers use the lesson plan as their guide to teach the same subject or topic for a presentation. As a result, it keeps them on track to accomplish the objectives. For instance, teachers must do arrangement the contents in logically order to make lesson go in sequence.In addition, to be lesson plan is well organized, usually the teachers will do early preparation the lesson plan to make it smooth running of the lesson. As example, teachers should prepared all equipments is needed in their teaching.Examples of equipment are computer, projector, handouts or white board and marker pen. Without all these things absolutely the teaching is not takes placed.Besides that, lesson plan produced an effective teaching. It shows the effectiveness in teaching when it provides benefit to both sides such as teacher and learner. For example, the learners will more easily understand the teaching. From that, it promotes high level of confidence between teachers and learners.Furthermore, lesson plan is possible introduction of education technology. As we can see nowadays, most the teaching session will used the materials based on technology products. This can proved that educational level is developing towards the world. In addition, lesson plan also provides the room to teacher for evaluation and assessment for their teaching. According to the teaching principles 2, where it consists of three major components such as objectives, instructional activities and assessment. For instance, a nurse wants to bring the Cancer patient visit to X-Ray department

to show the radiation therapy procedure. Therefore the X-Ray department should be informed before the nurse brings the patient to the department. The conventional unit of teaching is the lesson (or period), although in any given school this might last anywhere from thirty to seventy minutes. In contrast, there is no conventional unit of learning. Learning can take place at any time, day or night, and does not necessarily occur only in the presence of the teacher. Breaking down learning into lesson-size chunks is necessary for teaching but this can result in a fragmentation of topics and ideas if teaching is solely thought of in terms of individual lessons. For example, without careful planning, pupils may never appreciate the connections between fractions, decimals and percentages, particularly if these are Routledge text .There are a number of reasons why mathematics lessons you observe may differ in style and approach. Partly this may be due to individual teacher style, but there can be other underlying reasons. What you should notice is that effective lessons have a structure. Typically, a mathematics lesson might consist of: a starter task (perhaps an oral and mental starter) taking about five to ten minutes; a major segment of whole-class and/or paired or group work (about twenty-five to forty minutes),combining teaching input and pupil task; a final plenary (of from five to fifteen minutes) to round off the lesson .Of course, other lessons structures are possible. Below are examples of the structures of mathematics lessons from a study of mathematics teaching Teacher reviews concept of perimeter (1 minute). Teacher explains area of rectangle; pupils do practice examples (8 minutes). Teacher explains area of triangles; pupils do practice examples (25 minutes). Pupils work individually on an exercise (11 minutes). all treated separately. Another form of fragmentation can happen with investigativetasks when these are treated as comprising solely of distinct components such asgenerating results, drawing a table and finding a formula. Effective planninghas to be in terms of individual lessons that work well, but it also has to look to thelonger term. ANS---4---Teachers incorporate writing in math class to help students reflect on their learning, deepend their understanding of important concepts by explaining and providing examples of those concepts, and make important connections to real-life applications of the math they are learning. Teachers use the writing assignments to assess student understanding of important concepts, student proficiency in explaining and using those concepts and each student's attitude toward learning mathematics. Writing in mathematics is a win-win for both teacher and student. Although it may be

difficult to introduce this practice, it is well worth the effort. Look for simple ways to incorporate short writings throughout daily lessons and longer writings over the course of weeks or math units.Communication of mathematical ideas will help students clarify and solidify their understanding of mathematics. By sharing their mathematical understandings in written and oral form with their classmates, teachers, and parents, students develop confidence in themselves as mathematics learners and enable teachers to better monitor their progress.Mathematics can be thought of as a language that must be meaningful if students are to communicate mathematically and apply mathematics productively. Communication plays an important role in making mathematics meaningful; it enables students to construct links between their informal, intuitive notions and the abstract language and symbolism of mathematics. It also plays a key role in helping students make critical connections among physical, pictorial, graphic, symbolic, verbal, and mental representations of mathematical ideas. When students see that one representation, such as an equation, can describe many situations, they begin to understand the power of mathematics. When they realize that some ways of representing a problem are more helpful than others, they begin to understand the flexibility and usefulness of mathematics.Communication involves a variety of modes: speaking, listening, writing, reading, and representing visually (with pictures, graphs, diagrams, videos, or other visual means). Each of these can help students understand mathematics and use it effectively. Students should also use communication to generate and share ideas. Communicating with each other, with peers, with parents, with other adults, and with the teacher, orally and in writing, helps students learn mathematics as they clarify their own ideas and listen to those of others. The language of mathematics itself is a thinking tool that facilitates mathematical understanding and connects to natural language and everyday thinking.Students need to have many experiences in communicating about mathematics in a variety of settings. Some experiences will involve working in pairs; for example, kindergartners can sit back-to-back with one giving the other directions about how to make a tower of Unifix cubes. Other experiences will involve working in small groups, such as when tenth-graders combine information from several separate clues to find the distance around a park. Some experiences will involve explaining something to the whole class,while others may involve drawing a picture, making a model, or writing in a journal.Students need to learn the appropriate use of mathematical language and symbols. Most experiences relating to mathematical communication will involve the use of natural language, but some will also involve the use of tables, charts, graphs, manipulatives, equations, computers, and calculators. Students should not only be able to use each of these different media to describe mathematical ideas and solutions to problems, but they should also be able to interrelate the descriptions obtained using different media.In summary, communicating mathematics -

orally, in writing, and using symbols and visual representations - is vitally important to learning and using mathematics. Students should use a variety of forms of communication in a variety of settings to generate and share ideas. ANS----6---What are the main OBJECTIVES of mathematics education in SECONDARY schools? Simply stated, there is one main OBJECTIVESthe mathematisation of the childs thought processes. In the words of David Wheeler, it ismore useful to know how to mathematise than to know a lot of mathematics .According to George Polya, we can think of two kinds of aims for school education: a good and narrow aim, that of turning out employable adults who (eventually) contribute to social and economic development; and a higher aim, that of developing the inner resources of the growing child. With regard to school mathematics, the former aim specifically relates to numeracy. Primary schools teach numbers and operations on them, measurement of quantities,fractions, percentages and ratios: all these are important for numeracy.What about the higher aim? In developing a childs inner resources, the role that mathematics plays is mostly about thinking. Clarity of thought and pursuing assumptions to logical conclusions is central to the mathematical enterprise. There are many ways of thinking, and the kind of thinking one learns in mathematics is an ability to handle abstractions.Even more importantly, what mathematics offers is a way of doing things: to be able to solve mathematical problems, and more generally, to have the right attitude for problem solving and to be able to attack all kinds of problems in a systematic manner.This calls for a curriculum that is ambitious,coherent and teaches important mathematics. It should be ambitious in the sense that it seeks to achieve the higher aim mentioned above rather than (only) the narrower aim. It should be coherent in the sense that the variety of methods and skills available piecemeal (in arithmetic, algebra, geometry) cohere into an ability to address problems that come from science and social studies in high school. It should be important in the sense that students feel the need to solve such problems, that teachers and students find it worth their time and energy addressing these problems, and that mathematicians consider it an activity that is mathematically worthwhile. Note that such importance is not a given thing, and curriculum can help shape it. An important consequence of such requirements is that school mathematics must be activity-oriented. In the Indian context, there is a centrality of concern which has an impact on all areas of school education,namely that of universalisation of schooling. This has two important implications for the discussion on curriculum, especially mathematics. Firstly, schooling is a legal right, and mathematics being a compulsory subject of study, access to quality mathematics education is every childs right. Keeping in mind the Indian reality, where few children

have access to expensive material, we want mathematics education that is affordable to every child, and at the same time,enjoyable. This implies that the mathematics taught is situated in the childs lived reality, and that for the system,it is not the subject that matters more than the child,but the other way about.Secondly, in a country where nearly half the children drop out of school during the elementary stage,mathematics curricula cannot be grounded only on preparation for higher secondary and university education. Even if we achieve our targeted universalisation goals, during the next decade, we will still have a substantial proportion of children exiting the system after Class VIII. It is then fair to ask what eight years of school mathematics offers for such children in terms of the challenges they will face afterwards.Much has been written about life skills and linkage of school education to livelihood. It is certainly true that most of the skills taught at the primary stage are useful in everyday life. However,a reorientation of the curriculum towards addressing the higher aims mentioned above will make better use of the time children spend in schools in terms of the problem solving and analytical skills it builds in children, and prepare them better to encounter a wide variety of problems in life.Our reflections on the place of mathematics teaching in the curricular framework are positioned on these twin concerns: what mathematics education can do to engage the mind of every student, and how it can strengthen the students resources. We describe our vision of mathematics in school,attempt to delineate the core areas of concern and offer recommendations that address the concerns,based on these twin perspectives. ANS---8---"The national standards for science, mathematics, and professional development exhibit a strong knowledge base and a great deal of consensus about what constitutes effective professional development," the authors say. "Yet there's still a gap. There's a lack of rich description of effective programs that are constructed in various contexts and that address common challenges in unique ways. Nowhere is there accumulated the knowledge of effective professional development strategies and structures for teachers of mathematics and science. There's no guidance, in any one place, about how these teachers can best be assisted in their professional growth." Designing Professional Development for Teachers of Science and Mathematics aims to address these needs. Professional development also must go beyond the needs of individual teachers to address entire school systems. "School systems can influence teaching in powerful ways," the authors say. "They have a key role in developing leadership in their teachers." Systemwide influence occurs directly, through the nature of professional development that's offered and, indirectly, through the structures and policies that help or hinder a teacher's efforts.

A framework for designing professional development-----Successful professional development planners use distinct but related kinds of knowledge in their work: (a) what is known about learners and learning in general, (b) what is known about teachers and teaching, (c) the nature of the disciplines of mathematics and science, (d) the principles of effective professional development, and (e) knowledge of change and the change process.Designers of effective professional development filter knowledge through their own contexts to arrive at the most appropriate approach for a given setting. This knowledge includes strategies, critical issues, and beliefs. "As professional developers learn from their experiences, they become active contributors," the authors say. "And as their needs and interests change, they look to research for new ideas. Beliefs change, too." When professional developers see the effects of their work, they begin to think differently about students, teachers, their disciplines, professional development, and change. Experience leads designers to consider new issues or gain deeper understanding of the ones they have grappled with. "Professional development is recursive and sometimes messy," Loucks-Horsley says. "It demands flexibility and continuous learning throughout the process." Critical issues in designing professional development------Effective professional development programs support subcultures in which professional development can flourish. The need to create subcultures for high-quality professional development is more than instrumental, the authors say; it has a deeper significance. "The nature of the reform that is embodied in the mathematics and science standards will require a large number of teachers to keep changing and learning," says Loucks-Horsley. "It also implies a different intellectual culture for schools than is typical. So schools need to build capacity not only for teachers to reflect on their own teaching, but for the culture of teaching and schooling itself to change." Public support for professional development is intimately related to public support for science and mathematics reform. Professional developers can address the dual purpose of garnering public support for science and mathematics education reform and for teacher professional development. They can do so, the authors say, by paying attention to three areas:increasing awareness of the importance of effective teaching and learning of science and mathematics, as well as effective professional development--and what they look like;involving the public in learning situations (those of both students and teachers); andgathering and publicizing the results of teaching and professional development.The University of Washington's professional development project for elementary school teachers directly addressed the issue of garnering public support for science education. Teachers learned how to craft messages to address the questions and concerns of various audiences, for example, parents,

principals, business executives, and city council members. They interacted with a panel representing these groups around the question, "What would motivate you to support science education?" They identified the common threads and the unique needs of the various groups. SEC----B ANS-9A------Learning Objectives are statements that describe what a learner will be able to do as a result of learning. They are sometimes called learning outcomes. Learning Objectives are also statements that describe what a learner will be able to do as a result of teaching. Some definitions stress that a learning objective is a sort of contract that teachers make with learners that describes what they will be able to do after learning that they could not do before, the 'added value' of teaching. However the connection between teaching and learning is not a simple one. Just because knowledge or skills are taught does not mean that particular knowledge or skills are learned. Many factors can interfere with the achievement of objectives: the existing knowledge of the learner, the relevance or usefulness of the material presented, the skills of the teacher.Aims are general statements concerning the overall goals, ends or intentions of teaching. Objectives are the individual stages that learners must achieve on the way in order to reach these goals. For example a teacher might have an aim that a student should be able to take blood pressure using a sphygmomanometer. However to achieve this aim a series of objectives must be met. eg to explain procedure to patient, to position cuff correctly, to inflate to correct pressure etc, etc. .Certain objectives can be modified by the degree to which they need to be completed. Explain in detail is more complex than in outline. Measure to 95% accuracy is harder than simply measuring without any degree of accuracy given.There are a number of ways of thinking about this question. The quickest answer is that all teachers in higher education have to use learning objectives. The Quality Assurance Agency (the quality control branch of the Higher Education Funding Council) specify that all taught sessions must have learning objectives. QAA observers, when conducting a subject review, use an observation protocol that includes monitoring the learning objectives of the teacher. QAA observers have the right to watch any teacher teach and can ask them what their learning objectives are.A related view revolves around questions of quality and audit. If you don't know what you're trying to produce how can you be sure your teaching methods and techniques are working? If you have no objective standards how can you monitor your teaching effectiveness and how can you improve? Since all teachers must evaluate their teaching they must know what their output is.From a curriculum perspective the learning objectives from each taught session should fit together coherently building towards the overall aims of each module and the whole curriculum. If learning objectives are not know for each

session then it is impossible to see how the whole curriculum fits together. It becomes impossible for teachers in different phases of the curriculum to see what students have learned in other areas making managing and auditing the curriculum more difficult. In the case of the medical curriculum having many sessions without pre-defined learning objectives leads to a 'hidden' curriculum rather than the goal of an integrated curriculum. Q-----1---Write 230,000,000,000 in scientific notation.

Solution -----Write the given number in the form a 10 n , where a is a real number such that 1 |a| < 10 and n is an integer. 230,000,000,000 = 2.3 100,000,000,000 = 2.3 10 11 Q---2---Evaluate: 30 - 1232 = Solution ----According to order of operations, multiplication) is done first from left to right 1232 = 4 2 = 8 Hence 30 - 1232 = 30 - 8 = 22 Q---3---(True or False) The inequality |x + 1| < 0 has no solution. 1232 (division and

Solution ----The absolute value of a real expression is either positive or equal to zero. Therefore there is no value of x that makes |x + 1| negative and therefore |x + 1| < 0 is never true and the statement "The inequality |x + 1| < 0 has no solution" is TRUE. Q---4--(True or False) - a is negative. If a and b are negative numbers, and |a| < |b|, then b

Solution ---Since a and b are both negative, they are positioned to the left of zero on the number line. Since |a| < |b|, a is closer to zero than b and therefore a is greater than b which written as a>b Subtract a to both sides and simplify a-a>b-a 0>b-a

Hence the statement "b - a is negative" is TRUE. Q---5---Which of these values of x satisfies the inequality -7x + 6 -8 A. -2 B. 0 C. -7 D. 2

Solution ---Solve the inequality -7x + 6 -8 , given -7x + 6 - 6 -8 - 6 , add - 6 to both sides -7x - 14 , simplify -7x / -7 -14 / -7 , divide by - 7 and CHANGE symbol of inequality x 2 , solution set The answer to the above question is D since 2 is greater that or equal to 2. Q---6---The lines y = 2x and 2y = - x are A. parallel B. perpendicular

C. horizontal D. vertical Solution ----Horizontal lines are of the form y = constant and vertical lines are of the from x = constant and therefore the two lines are neither horizontal nor vertical. Let us find the slopes of the two given lines y = 2x has a slope equal to 2 2y = - x is equivalent to y = -(1/2) x and its slope is equal to -(1/2) Since the slopes are not equal, the two lines are not parallel. The product of the two slopes is given by 2*-(1/2) = - 1 and hence the two lines are perpendicular. ANS----10---B--STEPS OF PREPARING DIAGNOSTCS TEST 1. Paper-based diagnostic tests (1992-97)----A paper-based multiple-choice test was designed to test basic knowledge of algebra, trigonometry and elementary calculus.The test was taken by students during induction week and was marked in time for results to be distributed during the first week of term. Students with substantial difficulty in a topic were referred to a Mathematics and Statistics Learning Centre for additional tutoring. The system was inexpensive to set up and administer and provided feedback to

both students and tutors together with a mechanism for acting on the information. Initially the system worked well but with each year the proportion of students demonstrating substantial weaknesses increased, until it became difficult to manage the follow-up support. Student reaction to being tested at the beginning of the course was quite negative. The paper-based diagnostic test only offered students one attempt. Students did not have time to prepare for the test resulting in unease amongst some that they did not do themselves justice and by inference throwing some doubt over the usefulness of the information received.Many students did not participate in the remedial activity designed to address their real or perceived weaknesses. It was clear that in this format the diagnostic test did not necessarily give a realistic picture of an individuals level of understanding and how they should subsequently organise their study. Paper-based diagnostic testing was abandoned because it had ceased to make a positive contribution to the delivery of the module. In the period between the abandonment of the paperbased system and the introduction of computer-based diagnostic tests, a greater amount of time was given to the revision of basic techniques of algebraic manipulation, solving equations, trigonometry and calculus. In resource terms thiswas achieved by increasing the lecture time for each student from a single hour to two hours each week. Tutorials continued to be for one hour each week to a group of 20-24 students and resources given to the Mathematics and Statistics Learning Centre were increased so that it was staffed for one hour each day. 2.Computer-based diagnostic tests------Diagnostic tests were re-introduced for first year engineering students at the beginning of this academic year. Students take four computer-based tests in algebra, equations, trigonometry and elementary calculus with three attempts at each test. Each test should take between thirty minutes to one hour to complete depending on the ability of the student. Students must complete the tests by the end of the second week of term and are given instant feedback as to their score. A different test (but of the same standard) is taken at each attempt. The diagnostic tests form the first stage of a support mechanism for the module which is summarised below.The delivery of the module is as described in the previous section. Follow-up support to the diagnostic tests is initially managed through contact with students in tutorials. Students with significant problems are then offered one-to-one support by the tutor or through the Mathematics and Statistics Learning Centre. Material on the module is organised into four blocks with a computer-based test held at the end of each block (note that there is also an end of module examination). The test is open for two weeks and students are permitted three attempts.Having identified areas of difficulty, students can seek assistance during each test period from their tutor. After each test, workshops are held for students who still feel they require assistance with certain topics. Hence, students and tutors are being

made aware at each stage where problems are occurring and the support offered can build upon the work already carried out by the student. It is clearly too early to comment on the success or otherwise of the diagnostic tests in this course. However, some initial data is given below.The average test scores for the four diagnostic tests are shown in table 1. The average scores for algebra and equations are much higher than the scores for trigonometry and calculus. This is not surprising as the calculus and trigonometry tests involve a higher level of manipulation than the algebra and equation tests.The average scores for the first two computer-based assessments for the module are shown in table 2. The Algebra and Functions Test combines transposition of formulae,equations, trigonometric functions and other topics such as partial fractions and complex numbers that were not in any of the diagnostic tests. Table 1: Diagnostic Test Statistics -----------Diagnostic Test Median Algebra 67 Equations 68 Trigonometry 30 Calculus 39 Mean 74 61 34 40

The Calculus Test consists of standard rules of differentiation and integration, including integration by parts and parametric differentiation, and again includes material beyond the level covered in the initial diagnostic test. The test scores suggest that the majority of students have either maintained or improved their level of performance since the beginning of the course.Clearly, we would have expected performance to improve once the course was underway. One of the aims of the overall support developed for this module is to manage the different needs of the quite different groups taking the module. One of the benefits of the computer-based delivery of both the diagnostic tests and the assessment is that it creates a mechanism for monitoring the progress of students that is reasonably efficient in staff resources. Solve x(x + 5) = 0.

A very common mistake that students make on this type of problem is to "solve" the equation for "x + 5 = 0" by dividing off the x. But you can't divide by zero; dividing off the x makes the implicit assumption that x is not zero. There is no justification for making that assumption! And (warning!) making that (implicit) assumption will cause you to lose half of your solution to this problem.Even though you are used to variable factors having variables and numbers (like the other factor, x + 5), a factor can contain only a variable, so "x" is a perfectly valid factor. So set the factors equal to zero, and solve: x(x + 5) = 0 x = 0 or x + 5 = 0 x = 0 or x = 5 Then the solution to x(x + 5) = 0 is x = 0, 5 Solve x2 5x = 0. This two-term quadratic is easier to factor than were the previous quadratics: I can factor an x out of both terms, taking the x out front. (Warning: Do not "divide the x off", do not make it magically "disappear", or you'll lose one of your solutions!) x(x 5) = 0 x = 0 or x 5 = 0 x = 0 or x = 5 Then the solution to x2 5x = 0 is x = 0, 5 There is one other case of two-term quadratics that you can factor: Solve x2 4 = 0. This equation is in "(quadratic) equals (zero)" form, so it's ready to solve. The quadratic itself is a difference of squares, so I'll apply the difference-ofsquares formula: x2 4 = 0 (x 2)(x + 2) = 0 x 2 = 0 or x + 2 = 0 x = 2 or x = 2 Then the solution is x = 2, 2

Note: This solution may also be formatted as "x = 2". There is another way to work this last problem, which leads us to the next section. ANS---11 (II) --Although mathematical problems have traditionally been a part of the

mathematics curriculum, it has been only comparatively recently that problem solving has come to be regarded as an important medium for teaching and learning mathematics . In the past problem solving had a place in the mathematics classroom, but it was usually used in a token way as a starting point to obtain a single correct answer, usually by following a single 'correct' procedure. More recently, however, professional organisations such as the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM, 1980 and 1989) have recommended that the mathematics curriculum should be organized around problem solving, focusing on: Developing skills and the ability to apply these skills to unfamiliar situations Gathering, organising, interpreting and communicating information Formulating key questions, analyzing and conceptualizing problems, defining problems and goals, discovering patterns and similarities, seeking out appropriate data, experimenting, transferring skills and strategies to new situations. Developing curiosity, confidence and open-mindedness.

The questions attached to this document are intended to engage the students in problem solving where the focus is on the process rather than the answers they ultimately achieve. The problems are drawn from different syllabus strands and clearly can only be introduced once the students have mastered the appropriate content and while the problems are aimed at different levels, the more able students should be exposed to the simpler problems before advancing to the more complex ones. The following process may prove useful in engaging the students in the problemsolving process. Understanding Does the student understated the problem. Make sure that the students read and re-read the question and that they identify all the clues, what they are being asked to find and any conditions attaching to the problem. Planning Once the students understated the problem encourage them to plan a solution and to identify appropriate strategies and tools, referencing any similar problem they may have previously encountered. Can the students explain their reasoning? Experimentation Check to see if the agreed strategies work. Decide if each step in the solution is correct. How do the students know that the steps are correct? Can the students defend their reasoning? Reflection Does the students solution valid? Can the students show that the result is correct?

Can they suggest alternative methods of solving the problem? ANS---11-(III)---Research tells us that student interaction through classroom discussion and other forms of interactive participation is foundational to deep understanding and related student achievement. But implementing discussion in the mathematics classroom has been found to be challenging. In the math reform literature, learning math is viewed as a social endeavour.In this model, the math classroom functions as a community where thinking, talking, agreeing, and disagreeing are encouraged. The teacher provides students with powerful math problems to solve together and students are expected to justify and explain their solutions. The primary goal is to extend ones own thinking as well as that of others.Powerful problems are problems that allow for a range of solutions, or a range of problem-solving strategies. Math problems are powerful when they take students beyond the singular goal of computational mastery into more complexmath thinking. Research has firmly established that higher-order questions are correlated with increased student achievement, particularly for conceptual understanding.4 The benefits increase further when students share their reasoning with one another. Reform-based practices that emphasize student January 2007 interaction improve both problem-solving and conceptual understanding without the loss of computational mastery. Why then does the traditional mathematics teaching model, focused on basic computational procedures with little facilitation of student discourse, continue to be the common instructional approach in many elementary schools? Math teachers face a number of challenges in facilitating high-quality student interaction, or math-talk. The biggest is the complexity of trying to teach mathematics in ways they did not experience as students. Discomfort for some with their own level of math content knowledge11 and lack of sustained professional development opportunities also make teachers reluctant to adopt math-talk strategies. Further, the complex negotiation of mathtalk in the classroom requires facilitation skills and heightened attention to classroom dynamics. The teacher must model math-talk so that students understand the norms of interaction in the math classroom,12 encourage students to justify their solutions and build on one anothers ideas,3 and finally step aside as students take increasing responsibility for sustaining and enriching interactions. Time is another challenge. In the face of curricular demands, the time required for facilitated interaction has been identified by teachers as an inhibitor to implementing math-talk.13 However, the research also tells us that despite these challenges, teachers have devised some particularly effective strategies for facilitating math-talk. Challenges that Teachers Face complexities of teaching mathematics in ways they did not experience as students discomfort with their own mathematics knowledge lack of sustained professional development opportunities greater requirement for faciltiation skills and attention to classroom dynamics lack of time, especially in face of curricular demands .In an extensive study examining math classroom activity, student interaction was one of ten essential characteristics of effective mathematics teaching.However, left to their own devices, students will not necessarily engage in highquality math-talk. The teacher plays an important role.