Sunday, September 9, 2012

APEC - Khon Kaen International Symposium 2012

Please see this blog for details.

The next meeting is in Japan in February 2013. This year it was 14-18 Feb 2012. It should be around the same dates for 2013. Singapore schools that are interested to attend the meeting with Yeap Ban Har, please contact him at yeapbanhar@gmail.com by January 2013.

Open Lesson at the Symposium
The first three keynote lectures were common to both APEC - Khon Kaen International Symposium and International Conference on Educational Research. In Keynote Lecture 4, Shizumi Shimizu shared the Japanese curriculum (the latest one was introduced in 2008) (also called course of study).

Mathematical activities are defined as related to mathematics, and able to engage students willingly and purposefully. In Japan, mathematical activities are perceived as as aims as well as methods. It is also included in the strands as content - emphasizing the centrality of activities in the learning process. In Singapore 2013 curriculum, the same thinking is evident. Learning experiences (similar to mathematical activities) are now included in the content strands to emphasize its importance.

Types of Activities are of three types (1) Creating mathematics
(2) Using mathematics (3) Communicating mathematics

At the heart of learning mathematics is for students to do mathematics independently.

Mathematical Activities in Japanese Classroom

The speaker discussed mathematical proficiency for a greater part of the lecture and shows Japanese students' performance on test items from National Survey.

This lecture is useful for schools to think about when constructing their research theme for lesson study.

He also describes a typical problem-solving approach in the Japanese classroom and shares some attractive activities that Japanese teachers may use.

A Mathematics Class in Fukushima Prefecture


No comments:

Post a Comment