Beyond Abacus

  How to attract children towards maths ? 1 From Parent point of view Here is a checklist of what Parents can do to attract children towards studies in general and maths in particular Treat the child as a child. Children take time to understand things, developing their perception. Jean Piager, who did three decades of longitudinal study on how the mind develops, concluded that children learn to distinguish colours on their own not before 6 years of age. Just imagine the injustice we inflict on the tender brains to “prepare them” for Admission where we as parents, teachers, expect them to know colours, alphabate, tables to begin with. Let the child develop her own perception of people, processes, subject matter. Give them enough loose rope. Oftentimes children buy fear towards maths from family.  Like we adults, children do have mood swings. Do not expect them to be decent, dumb, yes sayings persons all the times. Like we tend to defy, deny, rebuke, boss, the children too. So,...

  Why do students fear maths ? 3 Some more reasons students fear maths Here are some more reasons students fear maths  Early failure in maths. Students who underperform in maths in early school classes and are reprimanded for that fear maths  Too many exams, tests, lot of homework make the student disinterested in the subject Constant comparison of student scores with siblings, peers, pressurise her Very bold lettered, dark red ink remarks by teachers frighten students Repeatedly asking to stand, get out of the class, making the child a target discourages the child from participating No transition from arithmetic to algebra, directly teaching X, y, z …. Teacher not developing the language sense to understand what is being asked ? It is not uncommon to see teachers, parents, tutors encouraging the child to either skip statement sums or memorise answers or give them clues to reach the answer. Mathematical modelling is the skill to convert life situations into mathematical ...

A checklist of some possible reasons of low maths score This checklist could be very handy to broadly identify one or more reasons for the child underperforming in mathematics. Of course, this is not an exhaustive list, but is indicative. Fear of the subject per se’. Listening to others that maths is difficult Too many expectations from the parents No study environment at home The student being the first person to go for formal education. FGL First Generation of Learner take longer time than others to catch up. Parents being indifference or not interested in the child Lack of space to study and concentrate The teacher being very strict unreasonable and has poor communication skills A teacher insulting the child for no reason The teacher unable to connect child to  the subject The teacher asking very e difficult questions right in the beginning off the tests The student it is overburdened with lot of work regularly being given by many teacher at the same time The student lacks suffi...

Why do students fear maths ? 2 I am listing different factors that each alone or together with one or more cause students develop a fear for maths in early stages of education. Order is not important as each person has different reason(s)  It is natural to fear maths . When parents tell the child horrible stories of their maths teachers or how they feared maths, the child thinks there is nothing wrong with fearing maths. He even “finds” his own fresh evidences    Solution Parents, other elders need not negatively influence the tender, evolving brain of the child. Let the child have her own set of experiences. Let the child develop her own construct. A brief description of what is constructivism can be seen here  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1r_LWNyNavIKaZAd5Tat3fLGBuAkd5lP_/view?usp=sharing .    Treating calculation skills alone as maths. This is the root cause of many unfortunate incidents. It is an established fact that different Intellectua...

Why do students fear maths ? 1 Mathematics is the science of recognising, understanding, appreciating, creating and using patterns in day to day life, business, sciences, work life, technology. Why do students fear maths ?  Finding an all inclusive, commonly agreed answer to this question itself is a very big task which innumerable scholars, parents, researchers, teachers have been doing since time immortal and will continue to do till humanity survives.  Within my limit of knowledge, experience, exposure, I would like to put the problem in a bigger, wider, perspective and it may some posts to answer it. My orientation will be more towards being grounded, realistic in assessing the issue as well as suggestions to solve it. Some bigger issues I will compare the issue of school kids being unable to be good at Maths with the adults being not good at spoken, written English. All wish to be good at it, but few are actually good All wish to be good at it, but few are doing something...

My journey as a maths teacher 6 Mathematics is the science of recognising, understanding, appreciating, creating and using patterns in day to day life, business, sciences, work life, technology. Can mathematics be improved ? This question has been there since time immortal. Various education Commissions, Boards, researches have tried to answer this in their own ways. In my long career, as a student myself, then as a teacher, proud father of two intelligent daughters, researcher, teacher educator, I have seen this question from different angles and with confidence I can say the answer is a YES. I will not make any tall claim to have a developed magical system or method that can help all and sundry to improve mathematics. I have got deep insight into some structural changes which can give phenomenal improvement of mathematics results at a mass level, as a system as well. But, in personal capacity, surely I have developed a GIM ( Guaranteed Improvement in Maths) program through which I ca...

                                   My journey as a maths teacher 5 Mathematics is the science of recognising, understanding, appreciating, creating and using patterns in day to day life, business, sciences, work life, technology. Early influence My father was a medical doctor with the Government of Madhya Pradesh and Aai was a housewife or homemaker to use current jargon. My first formal interaction with academics was when Paldhikar Guruji came to our house and made us, my elder brother and myself, write Om on a slate. If I recollect correctly, of 1966, he was the Headmaster of the local Government school. Our entire education, except for 2-3 years in Indore, has been from the Government schools. In Bastar, we even had to clean the classroom and spread taatpatti or mattresses which were rolled up at the en...