Teaching strategies in the learning of highest common factor and lowest common multiple

Abstract

Abstract.The main purpose of this study is to improve students" understanding of Highest Common Factor (HCF) and Lowest Common Multiple (LCM). Several alternative teaching strategies were integrated in the Year 7 lessons involving 20 students from one secondary school in Brunei Darussalam. The categories identified in the teaching strategy were the application of group work, embedding real-life problems, using presentations and the traditional drilling practice method. An open-ended survey was disseminated to collate the students" feedback, and among the questions posed was in relation to the different types of lesson activities utilised within each of the teaching strategies. Although 55% of the students preferred the traditional drilling practice on the calculation of HCF and LCM, mainly due to the ease of the task as opposed to activities involving real-life problems, the findings also indicated that most students favour sharing their ideas in a healthy competition learning style between each other or between the groups.

Fourth-Grade Primary School Students’ Misconception on Greatest Common Factor and Least Common Multiple

“…If students experience misconceptions in question 1, students will fail to answer question 4 correctly. To understand the concept of prime factors, students must understand the concept of factors and the concept of prime numbers, respectively [17,19]. Some misconceptions also occur when students answer question 5. e first misconception is that students determine the least common multiple of two numbers by multiplying the two numbers.…”

“…e student expressed that they were using the shortcut method without prior learning to the reason why the lowest prime factor needed to be used first as the divisor for the numbers. To make the student know how to use these methods of prime, there was no afterthought towards the answer or any discussions regarding it, and it was unclear whether the students really understood the concept that underlies the operation [19].…”

“…Based on the results of the study, students' misconceptions on teaching materials of the biggest common factors and the lowest common multiple are caused by several factors, namely, the failure of students to understand the basic concepts of prime numbers, factors, and multiples [14][15][16][17][18]. Students' misconceptions on the lowest common multiple and the biggest common factor occur because students are confused about distinguishing the least common multiple from the greatest common factor [19,20].…”