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How a Singapore Teacher Used Videos to Help Improve Her Teaching of the Part-Whole Concept of Numbers and the Model Method

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Cases of Mathematics Professional Development in East Asian Countries

Part of the book series: Mathematics Teacher Education ((MTEN,volume 10))

Abstract

Although the part-part-whole concept and its related pictorial representation conceptualised as the Singapore model drawing may seem beguilingly simple, it is not. Comparing the data from the two videoed lessons showed that the very prescriptive mediational processes of the teacher in the second lesson helped the children to discern and identify the critical components of the part-part-whole representation. Repetition of the related mathematical language and the specific relationships until these stuck in the consciousness enabled the children to engage with the lesson. The children could state the desired rule. More importantly facility with the mathematical terms gave children a means to request for further clarifications about the concept and to extend the concept. The MISC framework gave the participating teacher greater structure to her teaching actions. Watching videoed episodes of herself at work helped improved her practice in two ways. She designed meaningful instructional materials to address the intellectual needs of the children. The entire process challenged her assumptions on how children process information and the difficulties they may have with making sense of what seems to be a simple representation of part-part-whole nature of numbers.

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Correspondence to Swee Fong Ng .

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Ng, S.F. (2015). How a Singapore Teacher Used Videos to Help Improve Her Teaching of the Part-Whole Concept of Numbers and the Model Method. In: Ng, S. (eds) Cases of Mathematics Professional Development in East Asian Countries. Mathematics Teacher Education, vol 10. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-405-4_5

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