Meeting the Needs of Malaysian Mathematically Talented Students by An Enrichment Program: A Module For Primary School Students

School holiday enrichment program annually organized by PERMATApintar National Gifted Centre was to uncover hidden talents in science and mathematics. Students in this program were grouped into different courses. In order to run the Introduction to Cryptology course for primary school students, a new module has been developed. This module has been implemented for the first time during the school holiday program in December 2017. Thus, this study aimed at determining mathematics achievement of 34 Malaysian primary school students in Introduction to Cryptology course. An examination consisting of a set of questions on mathematical concepts was being given to each of the students during the final day of the program. Student scores were being evaluated to assess their achievement. Findings indicate that 73.6% of students scored between 80 and 100 in the examination. Students have good achievement in the concept of integers but they have deficiency in the concept of matrices. Hence, it can be concluded that the students indeed have special ability in doing mathematics. Since matrices were new to Malaysian primary school students, thus interesting activities relating to matrices will be included in the module to intensify students’ motivation in mathematics.

Milestones in the life course of distinguished mathematicians and mathematically gifted adolescents .

The paper presents the results of research on milestones (significant events, critical points, crystallizing experiments) in the course of life of outstanding mathematicians and mathematically talented adolescents. The work covers the period of approximately last 80 years. Four distinct group of mathematicians had received their education and pursed their scientific careers at that time: late, distinguished professors of mathematics, distinguished professors of mathematics who are still alive, PhD students and doctors of mathematical faculties, laureates of mathematical olympiads. The author’s intention was to indicate milestones – key events and moments in their history determined by the author (or those indicated by the interested) to reach the highest position and recognition in the field of mathematics. Those are, for example, important experiences in a person’s life that played a huge role in choosing mathematics as a direction for further development or reasserted that mathematics is the right choice. The considerations were based on a holistic, humanistic approach and a biographical approach from the perspective of Charlotte Bühler The course of human life. The techniques that have been used include document analysis and narrative interviews. According to the recommendations of Buhler’s results were presented graphically on the timelines.