Conceptual difficulties
Students experience difficulty understanding critical features of a concept and/or generalising key facts, concepts, strategies and procedures to other contexts.
To support students experiencing conceptual difficulties in Mathematics, teachers should:
- develop knowledge, skills and understanding that move from simple to complex
- include examples and non-examples using multiple representations to assist students in recognising relevant features of concepts
- plan learning experiences that require the student to process information. For example, students 4
:
- explain new learning to a peer, teacher or teacher’s aide
- write and answer questions
- develop mind maps
- provide a new example of a concept
- explain their position to others
- write reflections on their learning.
References
4. Harniss, MK, Carnine, DW & Dixon, RC 2002, in Kameenui et al (eds), Effective Teaching Strategies that Accommodate Diverse Learners, 2nd edn, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, pp 128â148.