Browsing by Subject "begåvad elev"

When children start school, they have large developmental differences and knowledge in mathematics. Due to the big differences, the same teaching does not suit all students. The purpose of this qualitative research was to find out how teachers experience and differentiate mathematics teaching for the mathematically talented students in first grade. The intention was, therefore, to find out why the teachers consider differentiating the teaching, how the methods they use and what challenges they encounter. The study is made as a qualitative interview study with four teachers in first grade. The interviews are first transcribed and then analyzed by the content analysis method. In the results, it has clearly been found that it is important to differentiate the teaching of mathematics. The students' high level of development and knowledge was considered one of the main reasons why differentiation of the teaching of mathematics is important. Teachers also mentioned that everybody needs to be challenged to develop, everyone is entitled to develop at their own level and to maintain motivation. The most common differentiation method the teachers mentioned were additional tasks and problem-solving tasks. Other methods mentioned were different games and puzzles, concrete material, student grouping and adapted homework. Although all teachers felt they could offer the talented students the stimulus they needed, there are challenges. Resource shortages and time shortages were the biggest challenges but also finding suitable tasks and pupils' level differences were mentioned as challenging.