Last week, we spent lots of time both during tutorial sessions and off it working on geometrical proofs. We believe that this is certainly the most challenging topic in the A. Math syllabus. After working on so many questions, we find that to obtain the correct proof or solution, determination and some intuition is required. Even for O level questions on this topic, we find that very often, we’ll have to spend a considerable amount of time in order to arrive at the solution. Putting ourselves in students’ shoes, we feel that it will be very tough on them to require them to solve such questions under the constraint of time during exams.
This is not the typical A.Math topic which can be mastered easily by drill and practice. From feedback gathered from some students in my previous school, their teachers actually left this topic to the last and told them to concentrate on other topics during exams. It is thus easy to imagine the lack of confidence even teachers face with regard to this topic.
To help students, teachers have to be really proficient and not simply brush the topic aside. Once the confidence on our part is acquired, we can help students by working with them through numerous examples of various difficulties. Allowing for group discussion is also very important as students can question one another on the claims made. For tougher questions, hints should be provided so as not to scare students into “surrendering”.
Group F
Couldnt agree more.....I myself find it a stuggle trying to understand the approach sometimes especially with the new theorem taugt such as the secant tangent theorem, tangent chord theorem...never learnt them before, so need to learn and be comfortable with them before I feel confident to do the proofing. I also agree that group work is a very good approach for this topic. Allows the sharing of ideas and approaches which will benefit the students.
ReplyDeleteStephen