IGNOU AMT-01 - Teaching of Primary School Mathematics

1. Which of the following statements are true? Give reasons for your answers. a) Usually the first experience of subtraction that a child has is in Class I. b) Primary school children of any age continue to feel the need to use concrete aids for learning. c) Learning algebra helps the child to develop mathematical thinking. d) Children don’t get an opportunity to apply their knowledge of negative numbers till they reach class 10. e) The language of mathematics is made up of the terminology and symbols used in mathematics. 2. a) List at least 5 ways in which a farmer uses mathematics while farming, clearly mentioning what are areas of mathematics involved are. b) What are the advantages of using algorithms? What are the dangers that we must watch out for while illustrates them in the context of multiplication algorithm for multiplying two decimal fractions. 3. In the block you have read that cognitive development is continuous and there are phases within each stage. Give two examples, one from the unit and one new example, to explain what this means. You should justify and explain both your examples in about 150 words each. 4. a) What is the difference between repetition and rote-learning? Illustrate your answer by giving an example from addition of natural numbers. b) Give an example each (apart from the ones in the blocks) to show i) the difference in the meaning of ‘angles’ in English and in mathematics, ii) how the language of algebra helps us to express statements briefly and concisely. 5. Write down an activity each, different from those given in the blocks, to help children realise that i) − (−n) = n, for any number n? ii) division by zero is not meaningless? 6. When a child was asked to solve 5/3 X 10, she wrote i) Why do you think she made this error? ii) How would you help her to apply the operation correctly? 7. a) Suggest one game in which the children are simultaneously asked to estimate the measure the size of an object and an angle. Justify your choice of the game. b) “Children learn by experiencing things”. Justify this statement by giving two examples, one pertaining to learning fractions and the other pertaining to learning about shapes. 8. a) Do you think that the number-line is a useful tool in teaching the operation of addition and subtraction of fractions? Justify your answer. b) Suggest a teaching method or an activity to bring out the difference between volume and capacity? 9. Write down a details plan (See Unit 4) for teaching children of class 6 the concept of variable. 10. a) Write “11” in base 2. Show the steps you used for doing this. b) Explain E-L-P-S sequence of learning. Illustrate it in the context of learning the concept of “Time”. c) Give two distinct that are equivalent to 3/7. Pictorially explain how they are different.

1. a)Explain how each of the pre-number concepts support the actual process of counting, Your explanation should include an example. b) Explain three different ways in which children often regroup the two numbers while undertaking operations on them, using the example of 57 and 38, while solving 57-38. c) Give an example each of a situation/word problem related to rivers, for the categories below: i) Cartesian product ii) Augmentation iii) Complementary addition iv) Ratio 2 a)Which of these four problems would be the earliest for a child of Class 4 to solve, and why? Give two activities, each requiring different ability levels of the learners, to help them understand the concept of 'negative number'. Justify your choice of activities, also explaining how the second activity requires a higher ability level of the learner than the first activity, b) How would you generalise to any base the concept of place value base 10 and the process of writing any number using this? How are you using algebra to do this? c) After an earthquake, 70 people of the affected community are required to be housed in several tents. Each tent is conical in shape, and must be large enough to allow a family of four to live in it and sleep in it. The radius of the floor space it takes up should be 3 metres, and the tallest human in each family would be around 2 metres. How much material is required to make up the fent? Solve the problem above, giving the stages involved while doing so. 3. a)Give two distinct word problems (pertaining to the town you stay in) represented by the expression Also find the solution to them. b)Is every natural number a fraction? Is every decimal number a fraction? Give reasons for your answers. Give three errors children commonly make regarding decimal numbers. Further, for any one of these errors, give a series of three activities to help a group of children correct the misconception underlying the error. Also explain how each activity would meet the objective, and how the three activities are connected as a series 4. a) Explain the five Van Hiele levels of development of spatial understanding in the context of measuring shape and size of 2D figures. b) Is there a relationship between the perimeter and area of quadrilaterals? Give reasons for you answer. c)Give two misconceptions children often have about measurement of time. 5. a)Give an appropriate example each in support of the statements below. Also justify your choice of example. i) Classroom relationships become a resource for developing the mathematical abilities of children. ii) Each child needs time to reflect on the mathematical concept or process being taught. iii) Learning experiences should be designed so as to build on existing proficiencies, interests and experiences, for effective mathematics teaching. iv) The ability to make connections between apparently separate mathematical ideas is crucial for conceptual understanding. v)Mathematical problems can have diverse solutions. b)Through an example pertaining to "time", explain what the diagram below is saying.