These activities are aptly planned to serve as enrichment activities for Year 4 pupils. The topic is mainly on data handling which is the last topic of the year. Therefore, it is assumed that the majority pupils have somehow mastered all the topics covered earlier. These activities are carefully planned so as to not only allow pupils to be able to acquire a thorough grasp on data handling and also be able to activate their prior knowledge learnt. By working on these activities which focus on data handling, some of the previous knowledge such as basic operations of whole numbers, fraction, money and mass will be recalled and tested. According to Merrill (2002),
"Learning is promoted when learners activate relevant cognitive structures by being directed to recall, describe or demonstrate relevant prior knowledge or experience."
"Directing learners to recall past relevant experience and checking this recollection for relevance
to the task under consideration is more likely to activate an appropriate mental model that facilitates the acquisition of the new set of interrelated skills."
Moreover, all the activities created are based on the pupils' daily lives. The content includes, pupils' favourite fruits, animals on the farm, sweets sold at the store, visitors to the zoo and pupils' results. The content areas are relevant and familiar to them. This can help to secure them in the learning process where they could relate their learning to the real world. Gradually their affective filter is lowered down and this will enhance the learning process. According to Krashen (1982), in his monitor model, when a learner's needs, motives, attitude or emotional state is affected, their affective filter is up and this will block the input given. Therefore, since they know what they are learning, their emotional state is stable and they are interested to learn, these activities can be carried out smoothly and the intended learning outcomes can be achieved by the end of the activities.
The most important point is that these activities about data handling are carried out using the Interactive Smartboard (IWB). This approach has greatly turned the learning process to become entirely different compared to the traditional way of teaching which is chalk and talk or manilla card teaching aids. Their learning about data handling has become so interesting as they are able to see colourful pictures, pictographs and bar charts which can stir them as well as capture and prolong their attention span. Young learners are visual learners because they learn from concrete ideas rather than abstract ideas. In Piaget's cognitive development theory (1952), children at the age of 9-10 are at the concrete oprerational stage where they are capable of operations but solve problems by generalizing from concrete experience. Therefore, by allowing them to look at pictures will help them to understand concept at a faster pace. In addition, teaching data handling using IWB is so much convenient, smart, fast and easy. This is because the teacher can plan and prepare her lesson in terms of activities and tasks where she could manipulate the IWB to provide input as well as practices and assessment to the pupils. If the teacher teaches data handling using the black or white board, she might have to draw and construct pictographs, bar graphs and copying questions on board during the lesson which is considered ineffective in the aspect of time management as teachers should always grab every opportunity to allow the pupils to learn more and display their knowledge in their learning process. By using IWB in teaching data handling, pupils can see, interpret and construct pictographs and bar graphs on their own demonstrating their knowledge to their peers. According to Erikson's psychosocial development theory (1963), children at the age of 9-10 are in the industry vs, inferiority stage. They need to be encouraged to make and do things well, helped to persevere, allowed to finish tasks and praised for trying. Therefore, through IWB, pupils are given the opportunity to interact with the smartboard and perform their mathematical skills and knowledge in front of their peers and thus, their self confidence will be tremendously enhanced. They will feel competent and they will enjoy intellectual work and take pride of doing more things. Once the motivation is developed, learning can be promoted easily and with fun.
On the other hand, using IWB in teaching data handling is capable to develop the pupils' hand eye coordination as they construct bar graphs and pictographs. The hidescreen feature is so useful in teaching mathematics. This is because the teacher can control the pupils progress in attempting the questions in the activities. Teacher only reveals the first question to be attempted and ensure that every pupil is engaged in doing that question. Smart pupils will always finish their work fast, as a matter of fact if the questions are all revealed to them, they will create havoc or start to disturb others once they have completed their work. This feature also gives time for the teacher to identify which are the weaker ones that need scaffolding. Vygotsky (1978) stated that children need a supportive social environment in order to achieve learning where they can proceed from their actual zone of proximal development. Teacher can immediately scaffold those who are in confusion and lead them to understanding as much as possible.
According to Bloom taxonomy of Education Objectives (1956), questions in mathematics should be constructed which covers the cognitive domain. The activities created on data handling involve the level of understanding, knowledge, application and analysis. All these happens when the pupils are able to understand the data in pictographs and bar graphs, the connection and relationships of the data, arrange and sequence the data, compare and contrast the data as well as solving problems according to the data shown.
Last but not least, the features to check answers after the pupils have attempted the questions are useful and motivating. Pupils will be able to identify their mistakes and learn from self correction, peer correction and teacher correction. When they get the correct answer by checking it themselves, they will have a sense of accomplishment. Conversely, if they get the wrong answer, they can always redo or their peers can help them out. Comparing to doing task sheets marked by the teacher, the teacher will give a big red cross on their mistakes and this can be intimidating to young pupils where they might lose interest in learning once they start to feel inferior and belittled.
These activities not only allow pupils to have close interaction with the IWB but also with their classmates. The activities are able to promote peer learning where pupils share their knowledge among themselves in group work and this helps them to learn from each other. Moreover, the better ones can help the weaker ones to learn the concept through communication among themselves. Pupils do not feel shy asking help from peers compared to the teacher.
Talking about games, the significance of IWB is that it can allow teachers to download games and save it as a flash file for pupils to play and subconsciously learn the intended input. Pupils do not feel stressed to receive input but learning it with fun and in a relax manner. Pupils not only can play the games but they are having physical contact with the IWB while playing the games. This may help pupils to learn better in memorization. Moreover, teacher will save a lot of time preparing boring task sheets for pupils to attempt on. Teachers can also have immediate feedback on pupils' knowledge regarding the input given and with the information obtained, teacher will understand the strengths and weaknesses of their pupils. This will allow teacher to provide more input or change their teaching strategies so that to achieve optimum results in the teaching and learning process.
All in all, implementing teaching and learning activities via IWB can truly benefit the pupils and most importantly it is capable to personalise and engage the pupils' learning in a condusive and supportive environment.
Below are some examples of my product.
These examples are not displayed to show the process on how to teach data handling (mathematics) using smartboard. My main purpose here is to share my personal experience that it is effective and interesting teaching data handling using this new ICT tool (IWB). It has brought about a brand new approach in teaching data handling compared to the traditional teaching method where learners can only construct pictograms and bar graphs on tasksheet. Vivid and colourful pictograms and bar graphs can hardly be displayed through the use of blackboard and whiteboard. Powerpoint presentation can display vivid and coluorful ones but only the smartboard is capable in providing opportunities to allow learners to engaged and interact with data handling through the "encounter" / "contact" with smartboard.
Smartboard is wonderful!
