My Small Research: A Problem on Multiplying to the Fourth Grade Elementary Student

My Small Research

A Problem on Multiplying to the Fourth Grade Elementary Student

Some Javanese people, especially the girls or women actually know about a game ‘pasaran’. It is so popular game when I was a child. The girls as I was at that time, we are about six or seven years old, like playing this game very much. It is like an interaction between the buyers and the sellers in the real market. Some girls became the sellers and the other became the buyers.
Commonly, they did an accounting here. In fact, they have done some Mathematic operations in their accounting. So, it helped even just little to us, to know about Mathematic even not all of us have been studying in a school. It gave some advantages because of selling-buying there, we use some leaves to be the money. We always count them when we needed to buy something. And so did, it needed thinking for a while when we have to give some paid back ‘money’.
But it was in the past. Not now or probably tomorrow. When we look around to our environment, we will find it difficult to meet that game played by those little girls today. Some children today prefer playing games in the computer to having that kind of games called ‘pasaran’.
It is not a thing to be amazed when some children in the school get some difficulties in operate some Mathematic operation - even more to those who don’t like Mathematic subject-. Three girls who was in the Fourth Grade of Elementary Students, who was became an object in this small research, had some difficulties on multiplication. They got some difficult to handle some problem related to multiplication. To have it clear soon, they have to count by adding and adding more which will so wasted the time.
Some method that thought in the school, for it was past, just through some memorization. When the children are good at memorization, there is nothing to be worried and even it was helpful. But what if they don’t? Not all of students have some good memorization even they are good on counting something. So, when the objects of this small research get some problems on multiplication, they get it difficult to finish it soon because they don’t memorize it well.
It is lacking of studying mathematic as just a subject in the school so the children often know that it can be so clear with their daily life.
What I mean here is that if we take some examples that the children know, and directly it is related to their daily life, it will be simpler to make them understand about Mathematic, even in the multiplication operation.
It is easier to get known about multiplication when the teacher gave an example like this. For example we want to multiple 3 and 2. So, we use a story to make it easier to be understood. Let Annie took three cakes from the refrigerator twice, so, how many cake does Annie have? They will get it easy to add three and three so they get six. It is what we called as multiplication.
To the bigger numeral we should better use the basis 5 and 10. So, when we multiple 7 and 9, we should think 7 times 10 then we reduce it with 9. We will better to give some prediction method, that 7 times 9 will have a result that less than 70. Another example, when we multiple 6 and 4, we have to know 6 times 5 first, so then we reduce it with 6.
But, it still be a little complicated when the children counting twice – multiplying then reducing -. They got on strong believe to the memorization even they didn’t do it well.