1.1 WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO LEARN MATHEMATICS?

1.3.1 A constructivist view of learning

The constructivist view requires a shift from the traditional approach of direct teaching to
facilitation of learning by the teacher. Teaching by negotiation has to replace teaching by
imposition; learners have to be actively involved in “doing” mathematics. This doing does
not always have to be active and involve peer discussion, although it often does. Learners
will also engage in constructive learning on their own, working quietly through set tasks,
allowing their minds to sift through the materials they are working with, and
consolidating new ideas with existing ideas. Constructivism rejects the notion that
children are “blank slates” with no ideas, concepts and mental structures. They do not
absorb ideas as teachers present them, but rather, they are creators of their own
knowledge. The question you should be asking now is, “How are ideas constructed by
learners?”

1.3.2 Piaget’s ideas of assimilation and accommodation

How do we construct “meaning” from our thoughts?

The general principles of constructivism are based largely on the work of Piaget.
According to Piaget, when a person interacts with an experience or situation or idea, one
of two things may happen. Either the new experience is integrated into the person’s
existing schema (a process called assimilation), or the existing schema is adapted to
accommodate the new idea or experience (a process called accommodation or
adaptation).

• Assimilation refers to the use of an existing schema to give meaning to new experiences.
Assimilation is based on learners’ ability to notice similarities between objects and match
new ideas to those they already possess.
• Accommodation is the process of altering existing ways of seeing things or ideas that do
not fit into existing schemata. Accommodation is facilitated by reflective thought and
results in changing or modifying existing schemata.

Activity 1.4 (Discussion Forum)

The diagrams below give a visual representation of the ideas of Piaget.

 Explain the following by providing examples:

(1) assimilation (2) accommodation

(3) disequilibrium (4) reflective thought
Instructions:
Post your answers in the Discussion Forum.
Comment or give feedback on at least two of your fellow students’ answers.

1.3.3 Sociocultural theory

The sociocultural theory of how we learn mathematics was influenced by the work of
Les Vygotsky. The zone of proximal development (ZPD) is a concept for which Vygotsky
is well known. It refers to the observation that children, when learning a particular task
or body of information, start out by not being able to do the task. Then they can do it with
the assistance of an adult or older child mentor, and finally they can do it without
assistance. The ZPD is the stage in which they can do it assisted, but not alone. Thus,
the teacher often has to guide a child or group of children as they encounter different
learning challenges.

While there may be wide variation of activities and content in a Vygotskian classroom, the
following four principles always apply:

(1) Learning and development are social, collaborative activities.

(2) The ZPD can serve as a guide for curricular and lesson planning.
(3) Classroom activities should be reality based and applicable to the real world.
(4) Learning extends to the home and other out-of-school environments and activities,
and all learning situations should be related.
1.3.4 Implications for teaching
Mathematics learning is likely to happen when we

• use activities that will build upon learners’ experiences

• use activities learners will regard as powerful and interesting
• provide feedback to learners
• use and develop correct mathematical language
• challenge learners within a supportive framework
• encourage learner collaboration, consensus and decision-making

Activity 1.5 (Discussion Forum)

The following tasks are given (translated into a South African context). Answer the
following questions and also comment on at least two of your peers’ responses.

(1) Four children had three boxes of Smarties. They decided to open
all three boxes, and to share the Smarties fairly. There were 52
Smarties in each box. How many Smarties did each child receive?
This Photo by
Now look at two attempts from Grade 4 learners to solve this problem:
Unknown Author is
licensed under CC BY-
SA-NC
(a) Explain in your own words how the two learners solved the problem.
(b) What is an algorithm?

Both learners in the above activity display conceptual understanding. They did not follow
the formal division algorithm but made up their own strategies.

(2) LPQ Toy Store is filling small boxes with three Smarties in each. If they have
24 smarties, how many small boxes will they be able to make?

Activity 1.6 (Discussion Forum)

 Consider the following subtraction using the vertical algorithm, which a learner did,
and answer the questions:

(1) What calculation error did the learner make in the subtraction?
(2) What conceptual error did the learner make? (Think of place value.)
(3) Did the learner clearly understand the rule, “borrow from the next column”? Explain
your answer.

Instructions:
Post your answers in the Discussion Forum.
Comment or give feedback on at least two of your fellow students’ answers.

1.3.5 Construction in rote learning

All that you have read so far, shows that learning and thinking cannot be separated from
each other (especially in mathematics). In many classrooms, reflective thought (or active
thinking) is still often replaced by rote learning, with the focus on the acquisition of specific
skills, facts and the memorisation of information, rules and procedures, most of which
are soon forgotten once the immediate need for its retention has passed.

Learners need information, concepts, ideas or a network of connected ideas in order to

think and they will think according to the knowledge they already have at their disposal
(in their cognitive schemata). The dead weight of facts learnt off by heart, by memory,
without thought to meaning (that is rote learning), robs the learner of the potential
excitement of relating ideas or concepts to one another and the possibility of divergent
and creative thinking (Grossman 1986).

Constructivism is a theory about how we learn. So, even rote learning is a construction.
However, the tools or ideas used for this construction in rote learning are minimal. You
may well ask: To what is knowledge, which is learnt by rote, connected?

What is inflicted on children because of rote-memorised rules, in many cases, is the

manipulation of symbols that have little or no attached meaning.

This makes learning much more difficult because rules are much harder to remember than
integrated conceptual structures that are made up of a network of connected ideas. In
addition, careless errors are not picked up because the task has no meaning for the learners
 and so they have not anticipated the kind of result that might emerge.

According to the stereotypical traditional view, mathematics is regarded as a “tool

subject” consisting of a series of computational skills. The rote learning of skills is all
important, with rate and accuracy being the criteria for measuring learning. This
approach, labelled the “drill theory”, was described by William Brawnell (Trapton 1986)
as follows:

Arithmetic consists of a vast host of unrelated facts and relatively independent skills.
The pupil acquires the facts by repeating them over and over again until he is able to
recall them immediately and correctly. He develops the skills by going through the
processes in question until he can perform the required operations automatically and
accurately. The teacher need give little time to instructing the pupil in the meaning
of what he is learning.

This approach has the following weaknesses:

• Learners perform poorly, neither understanding nor enjoying the subject.

• They are unable to apply what they have learnt to new situations, as they soon
forget what they have learnt.
• Learning occurs in a vacuum; the link to the real world is rarely made.
• The facilitator pays little attention to the needs, interests and development of
learners.
• Knowledge learnt by rote is hardly connected to learners’ existing ideas (i.e. the child’s
cognitive schemata), so that useful cognitive networks are not formed – each newly formed
idea is isolated.
• Rote learning will almost never contribute to a useful network of ideas.
• Rote learning can be thought of as a “weak construction”.

Activity 1.7 (Discussion Forum)

Question
Read the section above about “rote learning”. Seven weaknesses are listed at the end.
Write your own interpretation of each of these weaknesses (do not simply repeat what is
said here).
Instructions
Post your answers in the Discussion Forum.
Comment or give feedback on at least two of your fellow students’ answers.

Teaching strategies that you need to use for successful teaching of mathematics are
informed by constructivism, and sociocultural perspectives are informed by the following
ideologies:
• Build new knowledge from prior knowledge.
• Provide opportunities to talk or communicate about mathematics.
• Create or build in opportunities for reflective thought.
• Engage students in a productive struggle.
• Encourage multiple approaches.
• Treat errors as opportunities for learning.
• Scaffold new content.
• Honour diversity.
• Create a classroom environment for doing mathematics.

Activity 1.8 (Discussion Forum)

Question:
Discuss each of the strategies in a paragraph of about five points each.
Instructions
Post your answers in the Discussion Forum.
Comment or give feedback on at least two of your fellow students’ answers.