Nurliyana binti Mokhtar Nurul Ain binti Mohd Zairi Normah binti Mohyiddin

Concept can be classified into:

- Conjunctive concept - Disjunctive concept - Relational concept

 A concept that contains two or more integrated

attributes and they cannot be separated or lessen. Example: Pencil posses two integrated attributes - It is made of lead and used as a writing instrument. Both of attributes cannot be separated, and if any one of them is put aside, then the concept of pencil will be considered incomplete.

 Refers to attributes which have been

integrated into a concept so that they can be used in a certain situation or other situations. Example: In a table-tennis game, the concept of good service is a player who can send the ball skilfully to the opponent or the opponent is unable to return the ball right to the the server.

 Refers to attributes contained in the concept

which posses special relationship between one another. Made up of attributes with time and space. Example: Malaysia which is situated between Thailand and Singapore consists of the space attribute - The concept of a country which is situated between two countries.

 To simplify the management of various types of

information and attributes into a more concise form. Example: Animals can be classified according to specifi characteristics: - Animals with backbones (fish, mammal, reptile, amphibian and bird). - Animals without backbones (shell, cuttlefish, insect, spider and millipede).

 In Bruner s opinion, people first use verbal

responses as an effort to understand the environment. When verbal responses are not sufficient, then they may change to use pictures or symbols to represent verbal responses.

 Theorem of construction

Practical activities should be carried out by the representation. Example: - A pupil might master the commutative law by using discovery method to obtain the law or by means of a few operations such as addition and multiplication operations.

 Mathematical notations should be introduced

according to the pupils s cognitive development. Example: In teaching algebraic equation, it is better to start with notation such as = 3 + 2. After mastering it, the equation y=f(x) could be introduced in the upper secondary school level.

Example: Concept like curve, radius, diameter and chord will be more meaningful if their characteristics can be distinguished clearly. The concept of odd numbers and even numbers should be clarified by comparing their different characteristics between them.

 During teaching process, teacher should use

existing concepts, principles or skills to form new concept, principle or skill. Example: The operation in subtraction to be related with the operation in addition; the operation in addition can also be related with the operation in subtraction or multiplication.

 Children can form new concept by classifying

objects according to similar or different characteristics. Example: - Children will be able to differentiate that a quadrilateral consists of 4 sides and all types of four-sided plane figures are included in the category of quadrilaterals or all types of threesided plane figures are included in the category of triangles.

 Pupils should be prepared to accept whatever

facts and figures presented in the lesson. Example: - Pupils are able to learn that the operation in division is not commutative by expressing the quotient of 8 2 as 2 8 without necessity for the teacher to inform them about rule.

 The learning of Mathematics will be more

effective and simpler by using symbols to represent the abstract concepts. Example: - The union of set A and B is easier to write as A U B. - It is easier to accept 5 + 2 = 7 rather than 5 add 2 is equal to 7 .