Examples Of Observation On Math

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Observation: Teacher goes over to student struggling with math worksheet. Brings over abacus and sits next to him. Begins to demonstrate. “Now how many do we take away?” child is the one to show the math on abacus. “Now how many are left?” prompts child to count the rings in order to figure out problem. Slides first number over, gets student to take away the right number. Then counts the remaining to get the right answer. This interaction was carried out between the head teacher within the classroom and a student. The class was completing worksheets that involved different types of math problems including subtraction and multiplication. The teacher brought the abacus over to the table that the child was sitting at in order to help with subtraction. …show more content…

Within mathematics, automaticity refers to being aware of certain facts without needing to consciously process and undergo the operation (Arnold, 2012). This explains how we eventually come to just know simple mathematic problems without having to do them out in our heads. At a point, everyone comes to know that 1+1=2, but this is an example of automaticity; we do not mentally add 1+1 in our minds every time that problem arrises. The comment about using the brain implies that, to her, these problems are simple and should simply be known without any effort in solving them. However, it seems as though the other student has not yet reached the same level of automaticity and cannot solve the more complex problems without the help or physically going over the problem to solve …show more content…

After the initial burst of music, the music teacher stopped the class and asked for the three reasons why the recorders would squeak. The students gave the responses and they continued to play. However, I noticed that one student stopped playing after continuously squeaking and only pretended to play with a significant gap between her lips and the instrument. This illustrates an important occurrence that often begins in middle childhood and continues through adolescence: self efficacy. Self efficacy refers to how an individual perceives themselves and perceives their capabilities within a given situation or task (Bandura, Pastorelli, Barnarenelli & Caprara, 1999). Somebody with low personal self efficacy in a certain realm will be less likely to perform the task or engage in a situation because they will compare themselves to others, and find themselves lacking, and fear how others will perceive them (Chase, 2001). This student may have heard herself squeaking on the instrument, and stopped playing for several reasons. It could be that she was comparing herself to others who were playing better or feared what others were thinking about her

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