Course description

The development of the upper primary syllabus has attempted to emphasise the development of mathematical understanding and thinking in the child. It emphasises the need to look at the upper primary stage as the stage of transition towards greater abstraction, where the child will move from using concrete materials and experiences to deal with abstract notions. It has been recognised as the stage wherein the child will learn to use and understand mathematical language including symbols. The syllabus aims to help the learner realise that mathematics as a discipline relates to our experiences and is used in daily life, and also has an abstract basis. All concrete devices that are used in the classroom are scaffolds and props which are an intermediate stage of learning. There is an emphasis in taking the child through the process of learning to generalize, and also checking the generalization. Helping the child to develop a better understanding of logic and appreciating the notion of proof is also stressed.

The syllabus emphasises the need to go from concrete to abstract, consolidating and expanding the experiences of the child, helping her generalise and learn to identify patterns. It would also make an effort to give the child many problems to solve, puzzles and small challenges that would help her engage with underlying concepts and ideas. The emphasis in the syllabus is not on teaching how to use known appropriate algorithms, but on helping the child develop an understanding of mathematics and appreciate the need for and develop different strategies for solving and posing problems. This is in addition to giving the child ample exposure to the standard procedures which are efficient. Children would also be expected to formulate problems and solve them with their own group and would try to make an effort to make mathematics a part of the outside classroom activity of the children. The effort is to take mathematics home as a hobby as well.

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