Students need a joyful and meaningful mathematics learning process to change the paradigm that mathematics is complicated, especially for primary school students. To improve the quality of education in Southeast Asia, mathematics teachers have to develop learning strategies to motivate students through fun and joyful activities, such as exploring, constructing, designing, and problem-solving. SEAQiM has successfully packaged all the needed activities into the Regular Course, Joyful Learning in Mathematics Education for Primary School Teachers. A total of 35 (thirty-five) primary school teachers from SEAMEO Member Countries, consisting of Cambodia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia, also 3 (three) internship students from Universitas Islam Malang joined in this course, which was conducted virtually through zoom meeting on 28 March – 8 April 2022.
In this two-week course, teachers are introduced to various joyful activities to create meaningful learning in mathematics education. SEAQiM also supports the learning contents by inviting mathematics experts from other countries. In this chance, Assoc. Prof. Allan Leslie White from the University of Western Sydney, Australia and Prof. Kristof Fenyvesi from the University of Jyvaskyla, Finland, are pleased to share their valuable expertise with the participants. In the expert session, participants are enriched with the advanced strategy of teaching mathematics joyfully. Meanwhile, practical STEM/STEAM education is also inserted into the core materials.
The core and supporting materials are brought by the specialist and academic team from SEAQiM. In the zoom session, participants were actively involved in the discussion, and they were enthusiastic in every part of the session. Some of the practical materials, specifically Exploring and Developing Outdoor Mathematics Activity with Applications: Math City Maps Mathematics and Art, Mathematics and Art, Mathematics and Games, Exploring Virtual and Physical Manipulatives for Math Teaching and Learning, succeed in attracting a lively discussion. To explore more of the activities, the participants can access the tasks and detail of materials which have been provided by the academic team in google classroom.
Two teachers had been selected to be model teachers in the real teaching session. This activity was carried out at Calamba Elementary School, Philippines and SD An Nisaa’, Banten. Miss Primayanti from SD Negeri Gunung Batu 1 Bogor was the first teacher.
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