KB in Mathematics

What are the big ideas in maths?

Before we design activities to support students' mathematical reasoning about the topic and not just solving average problem, we need to figure out what is the big idea of "average"?

Here are a few pointers to take note:

1. The understanding of average requires the pupils to apply proportional reasoning and they need to understand that the concept of average in relative terms versus an absolute terms. It involves thinking about relationships and making comparisons of quantities or values.

2. A common misconceptions  on the concept of average is that it is an addition of the values, i.e. it is often associated with the concept of sharing or equal distribution.  It is a "value" and that can represented as a group of data.

3. Pupils need to understand that average:

·       is located between the extreme values (minimum value ≤ average ≤ maximum value);it is also a number that is closer to all the values.

·       does not really coincide with any one of the values within the dataset;

.   may be a number which does not have a correspondent in the physical reality (for example, the average number of children per couple can be 2.3);

·       is a representative value of the data from which has been calculated.