One of a number of tried and tested technique for teaching work that students learners find hard to learn found in teaching tricks and tips
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By accepting that learning of some topics will interfere with the learning of other topics and embracing this - we are able to help the students learners correctly match the ideas and the names attached to those ideas.
When designing the lay out of the questions we ensure that the questions looked exactly the same apart from the essential key differences for example the word area or perimeter and the units on the answer line - so the student learner must focus on mastery, if for no other reason that they become "bored" by getting their answers wrong and then "challenged" to get the questions correct.
We also encourage teachers to get students learners to reflect on situations where the student learner has succeeded in overcoming this confusion before such as "Remember when you used to be confused between area and perimeter and now you get these correct every time, well, I think it will be the same with b x b x b and b + b + b"
This is more than just encouragement, the teacher is getting the student learner to recall the "feeling of pride in a job well done" and establishing both the student learner and the teachers belief in a "growth mindset".
The plan for this page is to build up examples as above and include links to "teaching Higher work to Foundation studentslearners" videos and more easy on the eye student learner "remind-me" videos. For now though here is a list of situations where we have found asking students learners to focus on the difference between two problems has helped.
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Once we start to teach how to simplify h x h x h x h students learners lose their confidence in knowing that h + h + h + h = 4h .... so as soon as you teach h x h x h x h get students learners to work on and compare with h + h + h + h type problems, ideally in a mixed bag over time.
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With two concepts are ubiquitously confused by students learners such as area and perimeter, we know that after teaching one carefully - to what seems like mastery - when the other is introduced most students learners will become confused. We encourage students learners to embrace this confusion and encourage them to self reflect
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- OK this question is area - perhaps use the clue on the answer line " .... m2 - so I want to work out the number of squares" - to give their answer confidently
If students learners believe that most people run into the confusion that they have encountered, and that there is a logical way through the problem, and that a pause for thought leads to an accurate answer and most importantly the students learners encounter as many instances in their timely practice assignments as required to accurately match the name of the concept with the concept then the teaching and learning process will succeed.
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all the factors of ... and/or write ... as a product of its prime factors
Personally (assuming students learners find division hard to do) I like to teach students learners to write a number as its prime factors before I get them to find all the factors of the number, as
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