How Children Learn

UNIT 3 HOW CHILDREN LEARN Mathematics

MATHEMATICS
Structure

3.1 Introduction
3.2 Objectives
3.3 Children’s Conceptualisation of Mathematical Ideas
3.3.1 Children Learn from Experiences
3.3.2 Children have their own Strategies for Learning
3.3.3 Children See Mathematics Around Them
3.3.4 Every Child is Unique
3.4 Developmental Progression in the Learning of Mathematical Concepts
3.4.1 Jean Piaget’s Views
3.4.2 Lev Semionovich Vygotsky’s Views
3.4.3 Jerome S Bruner’s Views
3.5 Process involved in Learning Mathematics
3.5.1 Problem Solving
3.5.2 Patterning
3.5.3 Reasoning
3.5.4 Abstraction
3.5.5 Generalization
3.5.6 Argumentation and Justification
3.6 Let Us Sum Up
3.7 Unit End Exercises
3.8 Answers to Check Your Progress
3.9 References and Suggested Readings

3.1 INTRODUCTION
Who is an effective teacher? Can you say that a person who has an expertise in
her/his subject is an effective teacher? Or one who is capable of helping the
students to improve their learning?

Even a teacher with high academic profile may not be able to communicate
effectively with students in a way that they can comprehend what she/he
making them to learn?

What more is required for becoming a true teacher is that she/he is capable of
knowing the students. Knowing students does not mean only acquiring
information like students' names and ages, something about their friendship,
family backgrounds, their academic record, etc.; but more than that, a teacher
needs to have a deeper understanding of how the students learn in different
situations, She/he must be well aware of what type of activities may be suitable
for his/her students, what is the uniqueness in each child, etc. In other words,
more than knowing about a child’s personal information, understanding about
his/her characteristic patterns of learning is important for a teacher.
51
Understanding the In this unit, we will throw light on how important it is for the teacher to know
Discipline of children as learners. After going through this unit you will get enough
Mathematics
opportunities to know how children learn, childrens’ developmental sequence
in learning mathematical ideas, and the processes involved in learning
mathematical concepts.

3.2 OBJECTIVES
After studying this unit, you will be able to
• describe the ways children conceptualise various mathematical ideas;
• identify various situations that children learn Mathematics in a better way
through experience;
• analyse that a child may utilise various strategies for learning;
• appreciate that a teacher needs to know the level of development of his/her
learners;and
• demonstrate an understanding of processes involved in learning
mathematical concepts.

3.3 CHILDREN’S CONCEPTUALISATION OF

MATHEMATICAL IDEAS
You must have interacted with children in various contexts, inside as well as
outside of the school. From your experience, do you believe that child’s mind
is a ‘blank slate’ when s/he enters a formal school? Children begin to learn
Mathematics much before their formal schooling. Learning Mathematics
depends heavily on the knowledge and experience that children bring with
them to school. Children learn through numerous ways and as a teacher you are
expected to have an understanding of this as well as of the pedagogical skills to
use these experiences in your day-to-day classroom interactions. Let us discuss
the ways used by children to internalise mathematical concepts.

3.3.1 Children Learn from Experiences

It is universally accepted that Mathematics is an abstract subject. The task of a
teacher is to help his/her students conceptualise the abstractness through
concrete experiences. If we are not in a position to provide ample opportunities
to our students to concretise various concepts in Mathematics, they may
condemn the subject as boring and difficult.
Let us see how two teachers taught the concept of the nth term of an AP:

Teacher A
Mr Tomar is teaching Mathematics at secondary school level. He started
taking the class with checking of home work, which usually takes hardly 2-3
minutes. He usually checks the work of students who completed it and gives
some punishments to those who did not complete it. After this, he starts the new
topic by saying “today we are going to learn how to find out the nth term of an
AP”.

He wrote the formula for calculating the nth term of an AP Tn= a+(n-1)d where
‘a’ is the first term, ‘d’ is the common difference, and ‘n’, the nth term. Then, he
52 asked his students to copy it. Then it is followed by a problem which was solved
by the teacher through discussion with students and subsequently solution was How Children Learn
copied by the students. Mathematics

Then Mr. Tomar gives a problem to the whole class as a class work. Students
independently start solving it, and the teacher is not at all involved in the
process. This activity ends as soon as two or three students solved it correctly.
Mr. Tomar ends the class after providing them with homework from the text
book.

Teacher B
Mr Jitendra, another teacher who is also teaching Mathematics at secondary
school level has evolved a different pedagogical process while teaching the
same concept of nth term of an AP to his students.
He started his teaching with discussion on the homework of students one by
one. He asked students to explain how they did the home work and what were
the answers etc, and also asked the students who had not done home work and
asked to complete it during free time or at home.
Then, he started the class with discussion with the students about what they
learned in the earlier class. What is an AP? How an AP can be constructed?
He asked one student to write the first four terms of an AP, and another student
to write the next four terms etc. This is followed by asking the class to find out
its 100th term.
Some of the students started to find the 100th term, then he told the class that it
may take much time to find out the 100th term if you follow this way. Can you
find out another easy way to calculate it?
He facilitated the discussions through appropriately guiding the students to
derive the formula for finding the nth term.
The discussion went on like this,
Second term is nothing but the first term +common difference (cd)
Third term is second term+ cd, which is equivalent to first term + 2times cd
Fourth term is equal to third term+cd, which is equivalent to first term +
2times cd+ cd, or first term+ 3 times cd
a, a+d, a+2d, a+3d ....................................... a+(n-1)d
1st ,2nd, 3rd,, 4th ........................................... nth
……………………………………………………………………………………………..
……………………………………………………………………………………………..
……………………………………………………………………………………………..
……………………………………………………………………………………………..
……………………………………………………………………………………………..

This activity is followed by solving two or three problems by the students as a

class work. The rest of the problems were given as home work.

A close examination of the pedagogical processes used by the two teachers

reveals that, the teacher A has never considered learner as an active partner in
the teaching-learning process and ignored the importance of students own
experiences in conceptualising mathematical knowledge. Teacher B, on the
other hand has given more and more opportunities to the students to construct
53
Understanding the knowledge and improve their conceptual understanding through discussions
Discipline of and peer interactions. So without any doubt one can say that the second
Mathematics
teacher’s approach is better.

Let us see another example, a teacher wants to teach the concept that sum of
the angles in a quadrilateral is 360º.

What pedagogical process can teacher use so that students can conceptualise
the idea?

One way is that to draw a Quadrilateral on BB and can measure its angles using
protractor and show that sum of the angles is equal to 360º

Another way is teacher can draw a quadrilateral on a piece of paper or hard

board and draw a diagonal so that the quadrilateral can be divided in to two
triangles. Then use angle sum property of triangles to show that sum of the
angles of a quadrilateral is 360º.

Third way is teacher can ask students to construct various types of

quadrilaterals on a piece of paper or chart. Students can be asked to measure
the angles and find out the sum of the angles in the case of each type of
quadrilaterals. From the various examples they may be in a position to
generalise that sum of the angles is equal to 360º. They can prepare following
chart based on their experience
Name of the Measure Measure Measure Measure Sum of
Quadrilateral of Angle 1 of Angle 2 of Angle 3 of Angle 4 the
angles
Rhombus
Square
Parallelogram
Rectangle
Trapezium
Kite
Quadrilateral

Out of these three experiences, which one will be more helpful for students to
learn the concept better and more effectively? The role of students during the
first two cases was mere passive listeners whereas in the last case students were
actively involved in the process, and learning takes place through their own
experiences.

As a teacher it is our duty to provide such type of activities give first hand
experience to the learner to construct mathematical knowledge. What is
required here is that we need to provide opportunities to the students of actively
participating in the learning process. If they feel that ‘they themselves’ derived
the formula, the satisfaction that they would get will definitely influence their
approach to learning Mathematics. No doubt, they will show interest and
positive attitude towards the subject. The teacher needs to provide the
students with varied types of experience in a Mathematics classroom, like
group discussion, problem-solving exercises, mathematical games, puzzles
54 etc.
The experience of success through these activities result in the following How Children Learn
benefits: Mathematics

It enhances their mathematical ability.

Students will be intrinsically motivated.

Children will show interest in solving mathematical problems and reading
literature.

Children will actively participate in Mathematics club activities,
exhibitions, quiz, etc.

Children will show positive attitude towards Mathematics.

It will boost the children's confidence in learning Mathematics.

Check Your Progress

Note: a) Answer the following question in the space given below.
b) Compare your answer with those given at the end of the Unit.
1) What are the benefits ,when children learn mathematics by using their own
experiences?
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3.3.2 Children have their own Strategies for Learning

Renu, a class 9 teacher, after teaching algebraic identities gave the following
problem to the students:
‘Evaluate 84 x 85, without multiplying directly’.
Visnu did it in the following way;
84 × 85 = (80 + 4) (80 + 5) = (80)² + (4+5) 80 + 4×5 = 6400 +720 + 20
= 7140
Sonu solved it in this way
84 × 85 = (90 – 6) (90 – 5) = (90)² – (6 + 5) 90 + 6 × 5 = 8100 – 990
+30 = 7140
Monika used another method for solving it:
84 × 85 = (80 + 4) (90 – 5) = (80 × 90) – (80 × 5) + (4 × 90) – (4 × 5)
= 7200 – 400 + 360 – 20 = 7560 – 420 = 7140
What do you see in these three approaches? Whose method is correct? and
why?.

As a constructivist teacher we have to agree that all methods are correct and the
method followed by Monika is more creative and innovative since the other
two methods might have been explained by the teacher in the classroom. 55
Understanding the If you give freedom to the students to work independently and encourage and
Discipline of help them continuously in the learning process, surprisingly, you can see that
Mathematics
students will come up with solutions for a particular task or problem in
different ways.

You may be aware of the story of Gauss, the famous mathematician. When he
was a primary school student, his teacher asked the class to find out the sum of
first 100 natural numbers. The teacher had an important work to complete, so
he decided to give that problem so that students would take more time for
completing it. But, surprisingly Gauss solved the problem quickly, and when
the teacher asked about the solution, he explained that he added the pair of
numbers from beginning and end and formed 50 such pairs, the sum of each
being is 101 ( 1+100, 2+99, 3+98,…….50+51). Hence, total sum is 101x50 =
5050. Teacher doesn’t waste time in congratulating Gauss in front of all
students. The support and facilitation received from teachers and others during
the formative years of his life energised Gauss to come up with more and more
creativity and innovative ideas in Mathematics subsequently.

Instead of that, suppose we are discouraging our students against using

their own innovative strategies in Mathematics classroom, definitely that
will result in blocking their ability to think divergently, to try for
alternatives and arrive at solutions in an innovative way. That automatically
result in forcing students to memorise formulae, definitions, procedures, etc
through rote memorisation without understanding the ideas meaningfully. This
will not help the students to use those mathematical concepts for a longer time,
instead, it may help them to score marks in the immediate examination. As
teachers, we should be clear that our purpose or duty is not to help the students
to score high marks in examination in a routine way, but help them to
comprehend the ideas in a meaningful way, so that our students may succeed in
their life. For attaining this aim, we need to consider the ability of our
students, and as far as possible, various activities should be provided in the
classroom in order to enhance the creative abilities of the students.

While doing so in our classrooms, we should not expect that our students
will come up with correct solutions. In fact, sometimes they may be wrong
also, but they may not be aware of it. What can we do in this situation? Should
we blame our students for solving in their own way instead of following the
way we discussed? Of course, no, what we should do is to encourage our
students to seek alternative strategy and facilitate them to arrive at
solutions in their own way. If we do so, the students will definitely try to
modify old strategy and develop a new one to arrive at correct solution.

Check Your Progress

Note: a) Answer the following questions in the space given below.
b) Compare your answers with those given at the end of the Unit.
2) ‘Children learn from experience’. Substantiate this statement by taking the
example of learning any concept in statistics.
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3) Select any problem from trigonometry and show that children can solve it in How Children Learn
a different way. Mathematics

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3.3.3 Children See Mathematics Around Them

One day, while in an informal discussion, one of my friends, a faculty member
in a B. Ed. college, illustrated her experience. She was teaching the topic
‘Measurement and Evaluation’, in which the statistical topics like measures of
central tendency, measure of dispersion etc. were also involved. She told me
that it was considered as difficult and very boring by most of the non-
mathematical students. She tried her best possible way to explain the concept
of ‘Mean’ using various examples from classroom such as marks of the
students, weights of the students etc. Most of the students understood the
concept. A few students said that they were not in a position to comprehend it.
Dinkar, a history graduate, whom she knew previously also, was one among
them. Dinkar had a business of poultry, which she knew. She asked Dinkar
about his business and he responded that he was dealing with chicken as well
as eggs. She asked him the number of eggs he was able to sell daily on an
average. After a few seconds of silence, and some mental calculation, he told
her that it was around 40. When she asked him about how he reached the
answer he told that every day he was selling 35 to 45 eggs, and hence the
answer. She utilised this example to make the students conceptualise the idea
of ‘mean’ further.

The above incident is not a single one; we can see lot of such examples in our
classrooms. If we want to conceptualise an idea, it is better to connect the
students with their immediate environment.

Students are coming to the classroom with a lot of exposure to the

environment. In each and every moment of our life, knowingly or
unknowingly we use Mathematics. Whether it is at home, play ground, office,
railway station, bus journey, or in a party, we are bound to use different types
of Mathematics. Still, most of our students are showing an aversion towards
Mathematics. Hence, being Mathematics teachers, we should carry forward
whatever Mathematics students know from their own environment by
connecting it with the topic we are teaching. The teacher who connects
mathematical concepts with the objects around the students, can be
considered as a successful teacher.

You can give numerous instances in which we use Mathematics in our daily
life. What more is required is judiciously utilise the various experiences of
students in constructing mathematical concepts. The difficulty of learning
Mathematics and negative attitude towards the subject will slowly decline if we
are able to connect mathematical concepts with that of students’ daily
experiences.
57
Understanding the 3.3.4 Every Child is Unique
Discipline of
Mathematics
Have you heard about the concept of ‘Tabula rasa’? It means a clean slate, ie
nothing written on it. Our students are not coming to the class like a Tabula
rasa. Even an infant’s mind is not empty. Each and every moment in their life
children are experiencing many things, and as a result of that they are learning.
In the earlier sub-section, we discussed that child learns Mathematics from his
daily life activities. Every child might be getting various kinds of exposure, and
as a result of that, she/he may be conceptualising different things also.
Thinking process of one child may not be the same as that of the other. One
child may be learning mathematical concepts while playing cricket with their
peers. Yet another may not be seeing Mathematics in a cricket game, but may
be applying mathematical concepts while drawing pictures. Since our children
are unique in their personality, necessarily they may have uniqueness in their
thinking also.

You might have experienced this in your own classroom. You cannot find out
two children with the same characteristics in all the aspects. You may be
able to find two children with same weight, height, date of birth, and scoring
the same marks in tests. But if you observe them critically and analyse their
skills in applying various mathematical processes, you will find that, in spite of
all these similarities they show differences. One may solve numerical problems
quickly, but may not be able to perform at the same pace, when asked to solve
a word problem.

Activity for Practice

Observe any two students of the same ability level in Mathematics from
your class for at least one week, and see how they differ in their
approach in various aspects of Mathematics learning.

Check Your Progress

Note: a) Answer the following questions in the space given below.
b) Compare your answers with those given at the end of the Unit.
4) Prepare your daily schedule of activities and enlist at least 10 mathematical
concepts that you can relate to it.
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5) From the secondary Mathematics syllabus, list at least five concepts that are
related with our real life experiences.
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58
3.4 DEVELOPMENTAL PROGRESSION IN THE How Children Learn
Mathematics
LEARNING OF MATHEMATICAL
CONCEPTS
In the first section we discussed how the children conceptualize mathematical
ideas and the importance of conceptual knowledge in Mathematics learning.
Let us go back to section 3.3.1; there we illustrated how Mr. Tomar and
Mr.Jitendra taught their students about the concept of the nth term of an AP.
The pedagogical process used by Mr. Tomar was completely teacher oriented
without any scope for students to reflect or question anything. Students were
passive listeners and learning become more and more difficult for them. This
pedagogical approach is a contribution of behaviourist psychologists. On the
other hand the pedagogy used by Mr. Jitendra was completely student oriented
and it was due to the active participation of students, they derived the formula
of the nth term of an AP. The concept they developed in this way will be ever
lasting. The psychological approach used by Mr. Jitendra is ‘Constructivism’.
In fact as Mathematics teachers we also need to conceptualize constructivism
and the way it proposes the progressive development of concepts.

Constructivism, as a theory of learning, believes that each and every individual

has the capacity to construct his own understanding and knowledge about
various things through experiencing and reflecting. In this process, whenever a
child encounters a new experience, he/she can either easily connect it with the
existing knowledge or can make some changes in the existing knowledge to
accommodate the new experience.

In the following subsection, we can discuss the contribution of three famous

constructivist psychologists, viz, Piaget, Bruner, and Vygotsky to the process
of cognitive development.

3.4.1 Jean Piaget’s Views

According to Piaget, cognitive development is synonymous with changes in
cognitive structure, where a cognitive structure consists of several isolated
structures, called schemes, that undergo both quantitative and qualitative
changes during development. Schemas are the basic building blocks of
thought and the mental representation of the objects and events in the
world and may be discarded or modified or retained as a result of experiences.

For example, ‘number’ is a schema, in our cognitive structure from the first
standard onwards. How is this schema undergoing modification as one reaches
up to graduation level. For a first standard student, it represents any of the
natural numbers, when he or she reaches fifth standard, a number may be
natural number, may be integers, may be whole number etc.

According to Piaget, one’s cognitive structure consists of different kinds of

schemas, and cognitive development occurs as a result of changes in the
cognitive structure as well as due to experiences gained during interaction with
the physical world. What are the processes involved in this modification
process?

Assimilation and accommodation are two technical terms used by Piaget to

explain how cognitive structure undergoes modification and improvement.
Assimilation occurs when people try to understand a new experience by 59
Understanding the matching it with existing schemas. Accommodation takes place when a
Discipline of person brings about changes in these existing schemas to adapt to a new
Mathematics
situation.

For example a student has the concept of rational number. When he/she learns
the concept of percentage, he/she will be able to assimilate it into the existing
schema. He/she can easily internalise the concept of percentage, by linking it
with rational number. Even though both represent different schemas in the
cognitive structure, it can be stored in such a way that a percentage is a
particular rational number whose denominator is always 100? Through this
process, he/she will be able to accommodate the new schema.

Suppose a student assimilates a new thing, which is contradicting or confusing

with some shemas already there in his/ her cognitive structure.Then the child
will experience a conflicting situation, which Piaget called as cognitive
conflict. This will leads to a condition of disequilibrium. As a result of this
child will try to find a suitable place for the new schema through a process of
reorganisation and restructuring of the previously existing schemas. This
process of finding a new place for the assimilated schema is known as
accommodation. Through this way, the cognitive structure will become in the
equilibrium position again.

In the above example, after introducing the concept of percentage, students

may have some confusion since they represent 2% as 2/100, whereas, they
learned as a rational number. This confusion will be cleared when they
understand that percentage is a special type of rational number.

Thus, the cognitive structures are constructed and continuously

reconstructed through an interaction between the student and various
experiences in and out of classroom. As a result of modification in the
cognitive structure, more and more concepts will be assimilated and
accommodated. Based on his studies, Piaget put forth clearly demarcated
sequential stages in cognitive development, namely:

 Sensory motor period (Birth to 2 years)

 Pre-operational period (2-7 years)
 Concrete operatioal period (7-11 years)
 Formal operational period (11-15 years)

Sensory Motor Period (Birth to 2 years) :Children in sensory motor period

learn mostly through trial and error learning. Children initially rely on reflexes.
In the later part of this period the child will be able to mentally represent the
objects and events, and the process is called object permanence. For example,
if you hide a toy at any place in front of the child, the child who has attained
the object permanence stage knows the place where it is kept.

Pre-operational Period (2-7 years) : Children in the pre-operational stage can

mentally represent events and objects and engage in symbolic play. The typical
characteristics of pre- operational children are:
• Able to use symbols (language),
• Engaged in symbolic play .
• Egocentric (view of world from one point of view)
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• Thinking unsystematic / illogical, How Children Learn
Mathematics
• Centers on one aspect of object / problem at a time,
• Cannot reverse processes, but has rediments of conservation and
classification,
• Does not have a structure of whole, but rather many isolated segments.

Concrete Operatioal Period (7-11 years): During this stage the child
• Can conserve mass, length, weight and volume,
• Able to reverse and decentre,
• Can classify objects (organise objects into an organised schema),
• Logical thinking based on direct experiences.

Formal Operational Period (11-15 years): During this stage child exhibits
• Hypothetical / deductive reasoning (can identify possible solutions to
problem solving, can test systematically),
• Inductive reasoning (can move from specific facts to formulate general
principles and conclusions),
• Reflective abstractions (can reflect on self/what might happen),
• ability to reason in purely symbolic / abstract manner.
According to Piaget, Mathematics, and infact, most of the essential schemas
cannot be ‘taught’, they have to be ‘constructed’ by the child. In the early
stages verbal instruction may not help much. Various types of activities, which
are essential for building shemas should be included. In understanding a
problem the child assimilates it into his/her existing schemas and incorporates
into his total cognitive world. When the existing schemas are inadequate to the
complexity of the problem, ‘mistakes’ occur. Then non-piagetian teacher will
concentrate on occuring the mistake. The Piagetian teacher will help to create
the condition under which new schema will be created which can deal with the
new stimuli. The child studying under a traditional clasroom may seen to learn
certain things faster by mechanical means. But, the learning of the Piagetian
child will be firm and generative and hence in the long run the Piagetian
child is likely to overtake the child learning by traditional methods.

3.4.2 Lev Semionovich Vygotsky’s Views

Vygotsky argued that as a result of the social interaction between the
growing child and other members of the society that the child acquires the
tools of thinking and learning. His theory is primarily based on the concept of
‘Zone of Proximal Development’.
Let us consider the following example:
Teacher gives the following problem to the 10th class students as a class work.
‘A kite is flying at a height of 40m above the ground. The string attached to the
kite is temporarily tied to a point on the ground. The inclination of the string
with the ground is 60º. Find the length of the string, assuming that there is no
slack in the string’.
One can assume the following possibility as far as the problem solving activity
is concerned.
61
Understanding the
All students can solve and complete it individually without any external
Discipline of support.
Mathematics

Some students can solve it individually, but some need external support to
solve it.

All need external support in order to solve the problem.
As teachers, we have to expect these three groups in our classrooms depending
on the situation or problems.
Let us consider the first case; here all students can solve it individually without
taking any help from outside. Suppose the problem is very simple or teacher
has provided a very simple activity to perform, all students from the class may
be accomplishing it individually. According to Vygotsky, every learner at one
stage has the capacity or ability to construct knowledge by himself/ herself
when confronted with an experience without any other external support.
He called this level of knowledge construction as ‘Level of Actual
Development’. We can say that students of the first case are in their Level of
actual development. If the difficulty level of the problem or task increases, we
can see that some of our students may not be in a position to solve it
independently, but if we guide them in a proper way, they may be in a position
to solve it. This indicates that a student can even reach beyond his or her
Level of Actual Development, with the help of some support from teacher
or any knowledgeable person. The level up to which a student can reach in
this way, is called ‘Level of Potential Development’.
One can see a zone between these two levels which Vygotsky called ‘Zone of
Proximal Development (ZPD)’. ZPD is nothing but the difference between
the Level of Potential Development and the Level of Actual Development.

As a teacher, how you will use the concept of ZPD while planning classroom
process?

Vygotsky was of the opinion that development is more dynamic and

effective if children are exposed to new learning, specifically, in their
proximal zone of development. In this zone, with assistance from the teacher
or other knowledgeable persons, and peers; children would be able to
62
assimilate more easily what they would be incapable of assimilating if left to How Children Learn
themselves. The assistance may in the form of demonstration, giving more Mathematics
examples, monitoring and providing feedback, shared activities, etc.

3.4.3 Jerome S Bruner’s Views

According to Bruner, society and its culture play an important role in the
development of cognition in a child. Like Piaget, Bruner also formulated
sequential developmental stages based on the stage of representation. He
argued that cognitive development moves through three stages:
inactive, iconic, and symbolic. However, unlike Piaget's stages, Bruner
argued that these stages were not necessarily age based.

First stage is known as the stage of inactive representation; here the child
knows the world by the habitual action he or she uses for dealing with it. In this
instance he ‘knows through doing things.’ That means knowledge is
developed and stored basically in the form of motor responses. Second
stage is known as ‘iconic’ representation. In this stage, the child begins to
represent the world through images as spatial schemes. The knowledge is
basically stored through visual images. In this stage students will be able to
learn quickly if the teacher can assist them to conceptualise it with the help of
pictures, diagrams, graphs etc. The third stage is known as ‘symbolic’
representation; during this stage the child can translate actions and images into
language. Here knowledge is stored in the form of words, mathematical
symbols etc.

Bruner put forward the idea of the spiral curriculum, in which modern concepts
may be presented even to young children, but revisited at higher stage in
greater depth and breadth. He was not happy with the Piagetian view that
educators should wait for the child to be ready to learn. Instead he proposed a
much more active policy of intervention through spiral curriculum. He holds
that it is possible for the ordinary teacher to teach the ordinary child, in the
ordinary school the structure of subject, which will help the child to generate
much of the content, instead of memorizing too much unrelated facts. He was
of the opinion that ‘any subject can be taught effectively in some intellectually
honest form to any child at any stage of development’.

Check Your progress

Note: a) Answer the following questions in the space given below.
b) Compare your answers with those given at the end of the Unit.
6) Explain the concepts of assimilation and accommodation with the help of
examples of polynomials.
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Understanding the
Discipline of 7) You have given a problem to the whole class to do. During observation, you
Mathematics noticed that most of the children are doing it correctly. But a few asked for
help from you. Is the problem enough for understanding the ZPD of all
students? If yes, how? If no, why?
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8) According to Bruners, What are the different stages of cognitive
development?
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3.5 PROCESS INVOLVED IN LEARNING

MATHEMATICS
The realisation of the aim ‘mathematisation’ will by and large depends on how
our children learn Mathematics. Mathematics being an abstract subject requires
systematic and logical approaches from the teacher in order to help the child to
crack the abstractness with ease and confidence. Mathematics is not merely a
collection of content; instead it is more of processes that are essential for
comprehending mathematical concepts. We will be discussing more about
these processes in this section.

3.5.1 Problem Solving

Problem solving is considered as a process in order higher level thinking and
reasoning. It comprises sequence of steps: Understand, Think, Try and Look
Back. Problem solving is not a skill that one is born with – it is cultivated over
time with practice and experience. However teachers can help children by
providing space and opportunity to do tasks which require problem solving.
We have already discussed different steps of problem solving with examples in
Section 2.6 of Unit 2.You may refer and oriagnise teaching learning activities
for developing problem solving skill among your students.

3.5.2 Patterning
Most of the basic mathematical concepts can be introduced with the help of
patterns. Students show interest and active involvement in an activity which
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requires to devise pattern and extend it. Devising a pattern is very crucial in How Children Learn
Mathematics for 65eneralization. Mathematics

You might have heard of series 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, ……………, which is popularly

known as Fibonacci series. The beauty of this series can be seen in our nature.
For example, In the case of pineapples, we see a double set of spirals – one
going in a clockwise direction and the other in the opposite direction. When
these spirals are counted, the two sets are found to be adjacent Fibonacci
numbers.

Fig. 3.1: Picture of a pineapple

Students should be provided with opportunities to identify and relate patterns
in whatever they may be doing.
For example consider the algebraic identity (a + b) ² = a² + 2ab + b² and
(a + b) ³ = a³ + 3 a²b + 3 ab² + b³
Can we help the students to expand (a + b)8 ?
With the help of patterns in the previous cases, the students can be encouraged
to generalise the pattern to expand (a + b)8
Let us start with (a + b)⁰ = 1
Write the coefficients of all the terms in the expansion in a row
1
Consider (a + b)¹ = a + b
Write the coefficients of all the terms in the above expansions in a row as given
below:
We get
1

1 1
Now, consider the identity (a + b)² = a² + 2ab + b², and write the coefficients of
its terms in the expansion just below that it.

1 1

1 2 1

Next write the coefficients of terms in the expansion of (a + b)³ = a³ + 3 a²b + 3

ab² + b³ just below it.
We get, a pattern like this: 65
Understanding the 1
Discipline of
Mathematics
1 1

1 2 1

1 3 3 1
Students can easily complete the next row of this pattern, which will consist of
the coefficients of terms in the expansion of (a + b)4.
At the same time, students can observe a pattern in the degree of each term and
‘a’ and ‘ b’ separately.
For (a + b)⁰ = 1, the degree of ‘a’ and ‘b’ is 0
For (a + b)¹ = a + b, the degree of ‘a’ and ‘b’ is 1

For (a + b) ² = a² + 2ab + b², the degree of ‘a’ is 2, in the first term and is
decreasing to1 in the next term and to 0 in the third term. At the same time, the
degree of ‘b’ is 0 in the first term, increased to1 in the second term and to 2 in
the third term.

In the case of (a + b) ³ = a³ + 3 a²b + 3 ab² + b³, degree of ‘a’ is 3 in the first

term and decreases by 1 each in the subsequent terms with a degree of 0 in the
last term. At the same time the degree of ‘b’ is 0 in the first term, increased by
1 in each of subsequent terms, and is 3 in the last term.

Students can easily recognise patterns in degrees as well as coefficients, and

can expand any algebraic expression.

In fact, for expanding (a + b)8, they have to complete the pattern up to the ninth
row first

1 1

1 2 1

1 3 3 1

1 4 6 4 1

1 5 10 10 5 1

1 6 15 20 15 6 1

1 7 21 35 10 21 7 1

1 8 28 56 70 56 28 8 1
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Through creating patterns, students can find out the coefficient of various terms How Children Learn
in the expansion. They already found that the degree of ‘a’ in each term will Mathematics
decrease by one and that of ‘b’ will increase by 1 as shown in the pattern.
Hence the expanded form will be
(a + b)8 = a8 + 8a7b + 28a6b2 + 56a5b3 + 70a4b4 + 56a3b5 + 28a2b6 + 8ab7 + b8

3.5.3 Reasoning
Mathematical thinking is characterised by reasoning. Reasoning can be
considered as a process of drawing conclusions on the basis of evidence.
Most of the proofs and generalisations in Mathematics require reasoning.
Mathematical reasoning is of two types, inductive reasoning and deductive
reasoning. Mathematics being a subject abstract in nature requires the help of
inductive reasoning to arrive at various abstract concepts. Inductive
reasoning starts with a specific example or case and leads to
generalisation. It consists of four stages, viz, Presentation of specific
examples, observation of their characteristics and figuring out the
common characteristics, generalisation, and verification.

Ms Sunita, was teaching the concept of angle-sum property of triangles. She

decided to organise a group activity for helping all students to internalise the
concept. For that purpose students were divided into five groups. Each group
was given a set of 6 triangles. They were asked to measure the three angles of
each triangle using the protractor and write the results in the space provided in
a table. After measuring each angle they were asked to complete the given
table as given below:

Triangle Angle 1 Angle 2 Angle 3 Total

∆ABC

∆DEF

∆JKL

∆MNO

∆PQR

∆XYZ

After completing the activity in the group, students were asked to discuss
within the group what they found and what would be the sum of the angles, if
teacher gave them another triangle.

Thus, by considering specific cases, students found that sum of the angles of
any triangle is 180⁰.

Deductive reasoning is the opposite of inductive reasoning process. In this

process, we start with a general principle, formula or statement, and draw
valid conclusions about specific examples. This process helps the learner to
concretise the abstract concept which they learned.

67
Understanding the For example, students learned the algebraic identity
Discipline of
Mathematics (a + b) ³ = a³ + 3 a²b + 3 ab² + b³

From this they can expand (3x +2y)³ in the following way
Here a = 3x and b = 2y

Therefore, (3x +2y)³ = (3x)³ + 3 (3x)²(2y) + 3 (3x) (2y)²+ (2y)³

= 27x³ + 54 x²y + 36 xy² + 8y³
Caution: We need to understand that there is no guarantee that all of our
inductive reasoning will give us correct generalisation.

3.5.4 Abstraction
Mathematics is considered as an abstract subject. Most of the concepts in
Mathematics are abstract in nature. How can one reach this abstraction and
learn higher and higher related concepts? Unless the students learn the basic
concepts in Mathematics, learning the complex concepts will not be possible.

Let us see how a primary school student learns the concept of 1. For a novice
child, the concept will be abstract in nature. Teacher, through various concrete
examples, makes the child conceptualise the idea of oneness. He or she may be
shown one pencil, one flower, one ball, etc and through such type of examples
gradually develops the concept if one. Later on, he or she will be in a position
to use this abstract concept in developing other abstract concepts like 2, 3, 4,
etc, and in later classes, various other concepts of numbers and variables in
algebra.

Hence, we can say that, specific or concrete cases help us in the process of
abstraction. In other words, inductive reasoning in Mathematics ends with
abstraction. From the abstract concepts, we can develop more and more related
abstract concepts.

For example, quadrilateral is an abstract idea and we concretise it with the help
of various examples of four sided and other closed figures. After the formation
of the concept of a quadrilateral, the same can be utilised for developing the
concepts of square, rectangles, trapezium etc through establishing relationships.

3.5.5 Generalization
In the earlier sub sections, we discussed the process of inductive reasoning,
patterning and abstraction. Do you see any commonalities in these
mathematical processes?

A closer examination of these processes will lead you to a conclusion that in all
these processes the result or the outcome is generated on the basis of
generalisation from specific cases, examples or situations. Generalisation is
the process of identifying a pattern or a relationship and extends this
pattern or relationship beyond the given cases.In the case of inductive
reasoning and abstraction, the generalisation emerges out of particular
examples or cases. In patterning, each stage of the pattern gives us a clue about
the next stage and so on.

You may be remembering that we have already discussed in section 1.4.2 of

Unit 1 about the concept of generalisation and how mathematical
68 generalisation helps in the process of reasoning.
3.5.6 Argumentation and Justification How Children Learn
Mathematics
Abstract nature of Mathematics has been discussed in an earlier sub section,
and in Mathematics one come across generalisation of mathematical concepts
at different occasions. Argumentation and justification can be considered as
two important components of a mathematical proof and generalisation.

A constructivist classroom will provide ample opportunities to the students for

discussion and communication with peers and teacher. During these
discussions, students or a group, after an activity can share the procedure
followed by them, the strategy used, their observation, and others can agree or
disagree with their view points. The other group can argue with the group as to
why they disagree with proper justification. At the same time, the group which
presented also can argue with logical reason. The group convinces others that
their arguments are correct and valid with the help of concrete evidence.

The processes of argumentation and justification not only help the

students to internalise proof of a theorem, principle or formation of
concepts, it also helps to develop a habit of reasoning, while dealing with
various real life situations.

Justification is an essential component in problem solving as well. Why I am

using a particular strategy for solving a problem needs to be justified with valid
reason. Again whether the solution obtained is justifiable or not is also
important. Many times our students will not justify the answer. Common
practice is that, students will justify the answer only when the teachers ask
them to do so due to mistake or error. What is required is to build the process
of justification as a habitual one in our students. The process of justification
will help them to explain why their answer is correct and convince the peers
and teacher.

The example given below shows, how argumentation and justification are used
by a child while proving angle sum property of triangles.

Theorem : Prove that sum of the interior angles of a triangle is 180°.

Proof
Consider the triangle ABC.
A

B C

We have to prove that A+ B+ C = 180°

Extend AB to D

69
Understanding the
Discipline of
Mathematics A

B C

From the above figure ÐCBD is an exterior angle. (By the definition of
exterior angle).

We know that measure of the exterior angle = sum of the measures of the two
opposite interior angles

Therefore ÐA+ÐC = ÐCBD (ÐA and ÐC are the two opposite interior angles)
Hence ÐA+ ÐB+ ÐC = ÐCBD+ ÐB ( By adding m ÐB on both sides)
But ÐCBD+ ÐB = 180° (ÐCBD and ÐB are linear pairs)
Therefore, ÐA+ ÐB+ ÐC =180° ( RHS = LHS)
Hence, the sum of the three angles of a triangle is equal to 180°.

In the above proof, we can see that the argument placed by the student in each
step has been substantiated with proper justification.

Art of learning Mathematics depends on how the child has been provided
opportunity to experience these processes. Mechanical learning will not help
the child to conceptualise the meaning of Mathematics content. The
responsibility of the teacher rest on, facilitating the student learning through
organising different as well as challenging learning tasks to students.

Check your progress

Note: a) Answer the following questions in the space given below.
b) Compare your answers with those given at the end of the Unit.
9) Patterning can be used as an effective strategy for generalisation of
mathematical ideas. Can you substantiate this statement with a suitable
example from secondary school Mathematics?
……………………………………………………………………………….
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 How Children Learn
Mathematics
10) Differentiate between Inductive Reasoning and Deductive Reasoning. In
your opinion, which process is better for learning Mathematics?
……………………………………………………………………………….
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……………………………………………………………………………….

3.6 LET US SUM UP

In this unit, an attempt was made to familiarise you with various ways through
which a child learns various mathematical ideas. We discussed the importance
of child’s experiences in learning Mathematics and various strategies for
solving a mathematical problem or task. An attempt was made to discuss the
theories of Piaget, Bruner and Vygotsky with special attention to their
contribution to child’s cognitive development. In the last sub-section, some of
the processes involved in Mathematics learning have been discussed. Some of
the major points discussed in the unit are:

Every child learns through his /her own experience and then sometimes
device his/her own strategies for learning.

Children come across situations in their every day affairs where they use
some mathematical knowledge.

Teachers need to consider the ability of their students, and as far as possible
various activities should be organized in the classroom in order to enhance
the creative abilities of students.

The teacher, who connects mathematical concepts with the objects around
the students, can be considered as a successful teacher.

Cognitive structures are constructed and continuously reconstructed

through interaction between the student and various experiences in and out
of the classroom.

ZPD is nothing but the difference between the Level of Potential

Development and the Level of Actual Development.

Bruner argued that cognitive development moves through three

stages: inactive, iconic, and symbolic. However, unlike Piaget's stages,
Bruner did not argue that these stages were necessarily age-based.

Inductive reasoning starts with a specific example or case and leads to

generalisation.

71
Understanding the
In deductive reasoning we start with a general principle, formula or
Discipline of statement, and draw valid conclusions about specific examples.
Mathematics

Generalisation is the process of identifying a pattern or a relationship and
extend this pattern or relationship beyond the given cases.

Argumentation and Justification can be considered as two important

components of a mathematical proof and generalisation.

3.7 UNIT END EXERCISES

1) What are the importance of own experience in learning of mathematical
concepts?

2) Explain the features of formal operational period with examples from

Mathematics.

3) Elaborate the concept of ‘ZPD’.

4) Discuss the role of Inductive reasoning in learning Mathematics.

5) Differentiate between assimilation and accommodation.

6) What is argumentation and justification? Explain with examples.

3.8 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROCESS

1) Children will show interest in solving mathematical problems and reading
literature; Children will actively participate in Mathematics club activities,
exhibitions, quiz, etc.; Children will show positive attitude towards
Mathematics.

2) There are plenty of examples from child’s life, which can be utilised for
helping child to learn statistics. Child knows that his/her weight is different
from that of the peers. Suppose a situation occurs in which a single number
representing the weight of the students from their class require. The
concept of Mean can be introduced with the help of this situation

3) Find the value of sin 405⁰

a) sin 405⁰ = sin( 360+45⁰)= sin(4x90+45⁰) = sin 45⁰ = 1/ √2
b) sin 405⁰ = sin( 450 - 45⁰)= sin(5x90- 45⁰) = cos 45⁰ = 1/ √2
4)
Sl Activity Time Mathematical Concept
No
1 Wake up 5.30 am Time
2 Brushing the teeth 5.40am Profit, Loss, etc
3 Morning Tea 5.45 am Ratio
4 Morning Walk (Jogging) 5.50am- Number, Average,
6.20am Speed etc

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5) Linear Equations, Area and Volume, Circle, Statistics, Probability How Children Learn
Mathematics
6) Assimilation is the process of incorporating new information into the
previously existing schema. Here, the student fits the new idea into what
he/she already knows. For example, student learns the concept of
polynomial. Accommodation is the process by which pre-existing
knowledge is altered in order to fit in the new information. For example,
the student already has the idea of simple equations. While learning
polynomial he/she would connect it simple equations and differentiates
both.

7) If most of the students are able to solve the problem by themselves, then
the problem lacks the feature of understanding the ZPD. At the same time
some students ask for help indicates that, the problem works in the ZPD of
those students.

8) Inactive, Iconic and Symbolic

9) Students can be asked to see the effect of changing the radius of a circle on
its perimeter by measuring the radius and perimeter of various circular
objects. They may be asked to prepare a chart showing the radius,
perimeter and their ratio. From the pattern let them generalise about the
ratio

10) Inductive reasoning is an approach in which generalisations are based on

examples. It starts with particular/example/concrete/known and arrives
general principle. It is also known as ‘bottom-up’ logic. On the other hand
Deductive reasoning starts from generalisation/ principles/ unknown/
abstract etc and derives the specific examples/ concrete /known. This is
also known as ‘top-down’ approach.

In learning Mathematics both types of reasoning are vital. Inductive

reasoning is important while introducing any concept especially during
school stages. Deductive reasoning needs to be utilised while solving
different types of problems.

3.9 REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS

• Anthony, G. and Walshaw, M, (2009). Characteristics of Effective Teaching

of Mathematics: A view from the West, Journal of Mathematics Education,
Vol 2, No.2, pp147-164
• Beckmann,C.E, Thompson,D.R and Rubenstein, R. N. (2010). Teaching and
Learning High School Mathematics, John Wiley and Sons Inc. New Jersey
• Chambers Paul (2010). Teaching Mathematics- Developing as a Reflective
Secondary Teacher, Sage South Asia Ed, New Delhi
• NCERT (2005). National Curriculum Framework, 2005, NCERT,New
Delhi
• NCERT (2005). Position Paper National Focus Group on Teaching of
Mathematics, NCERT, New Delhi

73
Understanding the • NCERT (2012). Pedagogy of Mathematics: textbook for two year B Ed
Discipline of Course, NCERT, New Delhi
Mathematics

• Wilson, B. G. (1997). Reflections on constructivism and instructional

design, instructional development paradigms, Educational Technology
Publications. Available
• WWW: [http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~bwilson/construct.html].

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