Concrete. Pictorial. Abstract.

CPA Approach
This approach was highlighted & largely emphasized over the whole week. It is important that teachers first teach from using concrete, to pictorial,  then to abstract concepts.

On a personal note, I have observed some of these pitfalls to commercial resources & easy access to the Internet in my own teachings & some of my fellow teachers'.

A previous example that I've used before was when I showed a child a cartoon picture of a cow & he told me that it was a cow. So I asked him, how many legs does the cow has? He looked at the picture and told me that the cow has 2 legs. I remembered I was about to correct him until I realised that it was because the picture that I showed him was only a side view of a cow. And it was not even a picture of a real cow.

As I recalled this conversation between the child & I, it set me thinking about how we need to teach using the CPA approach. As much as possible, teachers need to make children's learning as real as possible. I would not want another child to tell me a cow has 2 legs or if I show another toy cow figurine & says that the other cow has 4 legs. And then it becomes confusing because then many cows have many different number of legs!

Theory of Variability
The choice of materials used for teaching makes a difference when we teach young children. Similarly to the CPA approach, we should know when to include variables that are different for the children's level of understanding. This is so that we do not confuse them when teaching various concepts.

Lesson Planning
Dr. Yeap led us to questions to think about when planning lessons for our students . I particularly like the question:

"What do I want the students to learn?"

Because many a time, teachers are more concerned about what they want to teach, rather than what they want children to learn. When that happens, the focal point becomes the lesson, not the children.

Another key part to lesson planning is also ensuring that there is a space for every different learner to learn. This does not just make a teacher more effective in her teaching but also playing a significant role in the building blocks of the children's learning journey.