Posts

Mathematics: Interactive Classroom

According to Dan Finkel, "Mathematics has been seen to be a repetition and memorization of technical facts". In most maths classes, students don't question facts simply because they've been programmed to just memorize these facts after series of repetitions. Maybe the students would have asked just if the maths teacher was accessible or was ready to answer questions with EXPLANATIONS. As a teacher, try starting your class with a QUESTION. Instead of listing out steps of solving questions, allow the students to think through problems thereby probing the steps and coming up with solutions. It is not a bad idea to make students struggle through questions. The teacher does not or should not be seen to have answers to ALL the questions. I once had a 10-year old student who expected me to give him answers to all the questions in his maths textbook. "NO! Let's work it out together" I would tell him and after solving these questions, sometimes the answers...

Do you love MATHS?

Once again, DO YOU LOVE MATHS ? I've gotten a lot of responses through my recent posts and through my interactions with parents and children. It is needful to state that problems with Maths cut across gender, status, location etc. While a group of people are indifferent about loving maths, some just do not want to have a look at any that looks like an equation. Why?! Some reasons were attributed to TEACHERS, while some were directed towards the students and some just couldn't tell. Whichever it is, there is certainly a problem from either sides or BOTH. My conclusion is, there is a phobia(Numerophobia) and there is a mindset. The influence of teachers  has a huge impact on how students relate with maths. Dear teacher, desist from: subjecting students to pressure caused by timed tests, humiliating students at every mistake, threatening or passing negative comments. Dear students, Maths is not just about memorization, maths is not just about formulas, develop s...