Geometry

When we were doing the activity on geometry, I was confuse and feeling lost. I could not understand how the answers were derived so I started to ask my classmate who was sitting next to me. When she explained to me and draw out the figure then I start to visualise what people could visualised. After the lesson, I felt that it is important for children to have the visualization ability to 'see things hidden' in a picture.
The textbook mentioned that "Spatial sense includes the ability to mentally visualize objects and spatial relationships-to turn things around in your mind." (Walle, Karp & Bay-Williams, 2009, p.400). Therefore, it is important to provide children with ample opportunity to explore with shape and spatial relationship so that children can develop spatial sense over time.

Pierce Van Hiele Theory has five levels that describes how we think and what types of geometric ideas we think about. The levels are as follows:

1. Level 0 - Visualization
2. Level 1 - Analysis
3. Level 2 - Informal Deduction
4. Level 3 - Deduction
5. Level 5 - Rigor

During lecture in class, it was mentioned that most of the children are between level 0. However, there are children who are at level 1 too. Based on Piaget, constructivism theory, knowledge will be constructed when the learner himself connects it with his experience. The learner need to reflect on the information learnt and communicate it by collaborating. At the end of the lesson, I had a better understanding on the rules and guidelines of geometry and the relationship. I was able to make connection with what I have learnt in primary school as well. 

The four content goals for geometry are shapes and properties, transformation, location and visualization. I found visualization a challenging task if there is insufficient spatial sense.

References
   Van de Walle, J. (2009). Elementary and middle school mathematics: Teaching developmentally (7th ed.). New York: Longman