Learning Mathematics through Games and Activities 11th july, 2019 Dr. Cheng Wing Kin, The University of Hong Kong Email address: wingkin@gmail.com or wingkin3@hku.hk

General considerations on Learning Mathematics Through games and activities I heard teachers reflected on teaching low-ability students with the FANCL Ethos "Less Is More". Why? Teachers prepared lots of learning materials, but they could only deliver less than half of those materials in the class. Teachers discovered that students forgot all the prior knowledge when they started a new topic. Teachers could never successfully teach weaker students to understand some level 2 questions. Teachers found that students had lots of mistakes during the final examination. What I saw in classroom? A student got correct idea, but she erased her solution and copied the solutions written by teacher.

General considerations on Learning Mathematics Through games and activities I would like change it to “Less and More”. Less teacher talk More student talk Less teacher authority More student choice Less teacher-led teaching More student collaborative works Less drilling exercises More exploring tasks Less silence More voice We would then visualize a noisy, happy and engaging classroom with student choice, voice and misconception.

EDB Curriculum Document Curriculum Guide (2017) https://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/en/curriculum- development/kla/ma/curr/ME_KLACG_eng_2017_12_08.pdf Supplement to Curriculum Guide (2017) https://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/en/curriculum-development/kla/ma/curr/pmc2017_e.pdf

EDB Curriculum Document There are 9 Generic Skills (in section 2.2.2): 1. Collaboration Skills 2. Communication Skills 3. Creativity 4. Critical thinking Skills 5. Information technology Skills 6. Mathematical Skills 7. Problem solving Skills 8. Self-learning Skills 9. Self-management Skills The are Four Key Tasks (in section 4.2.1).:  1. Moral and Civic Education: Towards Values Education, 2. Reading to Learn: Towards Reading across the Curriculum, 3. Project Learning: Towards Integrating and Applying Knowledge and Skills across Disciplines, 4. Information Technology (IT) for Interactive Learning: Towards Self-directed Learning.

Try it Out!!! Topic: Primary 2 Multiplication Facts Materials: 10×10 multiplication table; dice or dominoes or number cards; rough work paper What to do? Design a game or some of games that - are sustainable - develop generic skills: collaboration skills, communication skills, mathematics skills, self- learning skills, self-management skills - help students to keep track of their learning progress - can be used as remedial games or tasks for P.3-P.5 students who cannot recall the multiplication facts

General considerations on Learning Mathematics Through games and activities Activities or Tasks Suitable for – introducing a concept, drawing relationship among different concepts, exploring student conception or misconception Means - worksheets (allow students to express their thoughts), group presentation, IT tools, etc. Games Suitable for – any mathematics purposes (e.g. recall the multiplication facts in P.2), developing student creativity (e.g. creating number sentences in P.4), replacing drilling exercises Means – 5-minute game time, competition, lesson investigation, self-game, one-on-one game, peer-tutoring, etc.

Previous works Dissemination PowerPoint on “Learning Mathematics Through Games and Activities” https://drive.google.com/open?id=1taOq9HhhkOPLurmvUhHmsH01eeoNw5mK More resources can be found in this website: http://www.fe.hku.hk/ncspmath/ The End