INTRODUCTION : When a Class 5 child was given the problem 'If I paid Rs. 60 for 30 pencil boxes, how much did b pencil box cost?', he said it would be 60 x 30 = 1800. This is in spite of the fact that he was considered a good student, and had done consistently well in all his tests dealing with multiplication and division. Unfortunately, he is not an exception. Why has such a situation arisen? To answer this we need to examine our teaching strategies thoroughly. We did this in the context of addition and subtraction in the last unit. In this unit we shall suggest some methods for communicating various aspects of multiplication and division to children. You could accept, discard or mode these strategies.
To start with, we shall look at ways of introducing children to multiplication. This operation, like additional and subtraction, is often used in daily life. For instance, when we go to the market and buy 10 Kg of rice at Rs.5 a Kg, we multiply to calculate the amount to be paid. Or, when we make arrangements-for lunch for 50 people, we multiply to estimate the total expenditure. Of course, you can think of many more examples. In the first two sections, we discuss ways of using such instances from a child's life to help her understand what multiplication is, and where it should be applied.
Here we look at problem related to rote learning of tables. Children are made to do this because, supposedly, it helps them to store the basic multiplication facts in the mind, and to retrieve them quickly as and when required. In this section we discuss why rote learning is not a good way of achieving this aim. What is required is repetition done in meaning and interesting ways, from the child's point of view.
Further we talk about problems that arise because of the usual way of teaching the multiplication algorithm. There are numerous examples of children learning to solve problems in a mechanical way and not understanding the meaning of what they are doing, producing answers which are nowhere near the order of magnitude expected. The child needs to learn more than just facts, and acquire more than just the ability to write the algorithm and perform it on a given set of numbers. we look at some ways of helping her to OG so.
Further we start our discussion on division, considered by many to be the most difficult of all the four fundamental operations. We have also discussed the different kinds of word problems related to division that children would come across. We go on to highlight the major difficulties faced by children while learning division and the different terminologies associated with division. Of course we have suggested some teaching strategies that may help solve these difficulties.
Here we discuss ways of solving the problems that children face when dealing with the division algorithm. We also explain why the algorithm works.
As in the other units, throughout this unit we have included several activities to make the learning of these concepts interesting to the child. We hope that you will adapt or extend them to help children learn other related concepts / processes / skills.