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Mathematics and Life 5, Mathematics as a science of patterns

 Mathematics as a science of patterns 


As against treating mathematics just as a computational tool, once we start treating mathematics as a 

science of recognising, understanding, appreciating and creating patterns a quiet revolution starts happening.


Some of the implications are 


Teaching becomes wide based The teacher does not just confine to teaching abstract concepts, but she relates concepts to student's daily life experiences. Right angle, for example, does not remain a geometrical concept taught by a teacher, but she makes all her students understand that all buildings in this world are at right angle to the ground. 


The students just do not know feet, centimetre conversions mechanically, but can guess / estimate lengths by watching. 


Learning becomes fun As the child is taught mathematics through the environment, from his reality, the concepts start developing on their own as the child constructs her reality in an incremental, organic way. 


Instead of just knowing what is acute angle, when a child sees that all doors open as acute angle to the door frame, wall, scissors make acute angle, railway tracks are parallel, the child understands that mathematics is not something from alien species to trouble him, but is in fact a friend in need.


Better evaluation tools Once we start treating mathematics more than just a computational tool, our methods of assessing child's mathematical power too change. We start giving more chances to correct, we create MOCPA (More than One Correct Possible Answer / Approaches) type questions which give the child a fair chance to progress at her own pace, compete with herself, and better her own performance.


Higher order thinking skills develop As the child starts enjoying the learning, the mind is relaxed and can think out of box solutions. The child does not see contents in isolation, but is able to see the interconnections between the seemingly unrelated topics. This is the beginning of the child acquiring higher order skills like problem solving, critical thinking, computational thinking.


Relates learning to work efficiently Through understanding the core concepts, subject matter, on her own, the child develops confidence to use the learnings in day to day shopping, kitchen works, playing games, making intelligent guesses and so on…..

Once this kind of working becomes a habit, the child applies in her real work situations. 


Please write in the comment box any other benefits you see in this approach

Comments

  1. UnknownJanuary 20, 2021 at 9:45 AM

    Good morning sir, may God always accompany you in fulling your vision. Regards Preeti

    ReplyDelete

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