Approaches to calculation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Approaches to calculation - Essay Example The supplementation of mathematics learnt in school with their home based symbols can make kids have a deeper and better comprehension of what is taught in class. In figure 3 Barney has used various symbols to communicate his idea. He has used beans, flowerpots, the hand, arrows, numerical (10, 1, 2, 3, 6, 4 and 5) and letters (t, I, s). Barley strives to represent mathematical expressions using symbols. He states that â€Å"10 t 1 is p† which means that 10 take away 1 gives 9. In this instance he uses the letter â€Å"t† to represent the mathematical symbol of (–) which means minus. The letter â€Å"p† stands for 9 in an inverted form. The whole representation is supposed to mean that 1 taken away from 10 gives 9 or in a mathematical symbol way it’s simply 10-1=9. He also states that â€Å"2 t is 1† to mean 1 taken away from 2 gives 1. He uses another form in the second instance involving arrows and a flowerpot with beans in it. The arrows emerging from the pot are symbols that represent the act of taking away a bean the pot and the number of beans in the pots to the right of the arrow represents the number of beans that are left once the bean is takeaway from the pot. This whole representation stands for a standard mathematical symbol of 2-1=1 and 8-1=7 expressed in Barney’s own symbols. Code switching is evident here as he switches from using numerical and letters to drawings and arrows. He then switches to using numbers and arrows and â€Å"is† which represent the equal sign in a standard mathematical representation. The arrows denote the minus or take away sign. Lastly he draws the hand with a numerical on it to denote that the number has been taken away from a set and ‘is’ means the equals sign (Giangrasso & Shrimpton, 2013, pp112- 178). Barley’s recordings give a pictorial representation to the mathematical expression and appeals to the eyes of the