ED2652 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Sensemaking
Mathematics 2: Number and Algebra (ED2652)
Tutorial One – Week One
Introduction and Contextual Tasks
• Competency
o Competency Audit on Blackboard – this is a practice test, another will be placed in week 4 which will also
be a practice and these are a similar format to what is expected in the Competency test in the lecture of
Week 7.
▪ 70% is the pass mark for this assessment. This means if you score 70% it will equate to 50% or 15
out of a possible 30 marks.
▪ If you can’t at least reach the pass mark, you need to take some initiative and get some assistance.
▪ You may need to look for help from family, friends, paid tutors etc.
▪ Failing the test won’t necessarily mean that you fail the unit but it will make getting a good overall
grade quite difficult.
▪ HotMaths – You will use your student ID with an extension of .2017 (e.g. 20149999.2017) as your
username and there will be a genericpassword of “hotmaths1” which you will need to change.
• Rich Tasks in Mathematics
o Rich tasks open up mathematics.
o They transform the subject from a collection of memorised procedures and facts into a living, connected
whole.
o Rich tasks allow the learner to 'get inside' the mathematics.
o The resulting learning process is far more interesting, engaging and powerful; it is also far more likely to
lead to a lasting assimilation of the material for use in both further mathematical study and the wider
context of applications.
o Relevant to the real world
o Tap in to what students like, not what you like (more connected to their world)
▪ Hewson, http://nrich.maths.org/6299
• The games we play (Flewelling, 2003)
o He proposes that there are two fundamentally different games that we play in our classrooms
▪ The Math’s-classroom game (The game most of us have experienced)
▪ The sense-making game
• Contextual Tasks
o Purposeful and engaging
▪ Students, teachers and the community should see some real value in working on the task – that is,
they want to solve it and see that it is worth the time spent on it.
o Models how people solve real problems
▪ The task should involve meetings or other activities that involve negotiation, planning, action,
reporting, evaluating and exploring of alternatives.
o Puts knowledge to work
▪ The task should draw on a range of knowledge, skills and strategies from different areas of the
mathematics and school curriculum more generally as well as what is known about the local
environment.
o Demonstrates what students know and can do
▪ All learners should be enabled to make a start or contribute in some way. However, the task
should also challenge most learners at some level.
o Supports multiple representations and solution strategies
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
