Data and Chance Handbook for Teachers: A Guide to Teaching and Learning in Irish Primary Schools €15 each including P & P in Ireland
The aim of this Teacher Handbook is to assist teachers in teaching the strand of Data (infants to 6th class) and strand unit Chance (3rd to 6th class). This resource is intended to complement and support the implementation of the Primary School Mathematics Curriculum (PSMC) rather than replace it. By providing additional guidance in the teaching and learning of Data, this resource attempts to illuminate an instructional framework for enhancing mathematical thinking. This instructional framework advocates methods of eliciting, supporting and extending higher-order mathematics skills such as reasoning; communicating and expressing; integrating and connecting; and applying and problem solving. Although this resource highlights the Data strand, this instructional framework can be used for all strands and strand units of the PSMC. To that end a problem-solving approach focusing on pupils’ conceptual development of Data through engagement in practical hands-activities, is recommended throughout this resource. Enabling pupils to reason and communicate a variety of different approaches and strategies to solve problems, develops true mathematical understanding, rather than merely applying facts which have been learned ‘by rote’. Engaging pupils in this way enhances pupils’ learning experiences, enables multiple access points to the same tasks and encourages reflection and opportunities for self-assessment and self-directed learning.
