Improving school mathematics 4
Implications on learning
Mathematics is the science of recognising, understanding, appreciating, creating and using patterns in day to day life, business, sciences, work life, technology.
Once we accept and practice such a broad based definition of mathematics, it will have its profound and direct impact on how students learn. The first major shift will be that the learning becomes experiential than remaining rote memory based. Feeling well replace mugging up facts, formulae. For example, a student estimating how much water will come in a bucket will have more appreciation for the concept of volume of liquid than someone who just mechanically converts one unit into another.
When the students will actually count currency notes, do small transactions, bargain for a deal, give discounts, charge premium prices, they will under more about money than by just calculating profit, loss etc mechanically.
When a young girl will see her mother changing quantities of sugar, milk, in sudden arrival of new guests and making tea for them, she would understand the notion of proportion better than when she would mechanically understand a:b::c:d. When the girl will see how the map of her house and the house are the same, she will get a deeper meaning of the concept similarity.
Once learning is experiential, self paced, it will reduce forgetting. Likewise, due to understanding being given more importance, transformation of learning to apply concept in similar situations is also more likely to happen than it happens as of now.
The reduced emphasis on rote memory based questions, reduction in impractical expectations from the child will reduce maths anxiety substantially. Maths anxiety is a major factor that deters students even from attempting maths seriously.
Comments
Post a Comment