Mathematics Education
A bit too deep all of a sudden, I know. But I attended an academic seminar as part of my internship duties and it got me thinking.
The seminar was organized by the National Institute for Science and Mathematics Education Development (NISMED), the institute I work for, and it was done in partnership with the University of Tsukuba’s Center for Research on International Cooperation in Educational Development (CRICED). It was basically about teaching educators how to deviate from the traditional rote teaching methods.
This is what I realized:
The main reason why the students are afraid of math, or a mentality that math is a hard subject is because the way it is being taught is very linear. This is the problem, these are the given, and this is how you solve it. Formulas, formulas, formulas. Memorization, memorization, memorization all the time. Rote learning. Some would call it traditional. I am not saying this is not the right way of teaching math. But there are better ways on how to do it. New, innovative methods that basically just comes from the creativity and better judgement of the teacher.
The question that came up was, why are teachers not deviating from the traditional teaching. I discovered this is because they are scared, and probably unequipped to do so.
To be able to improvise teaching math, the educator must be very proficient in the subject. He must know the subject by heart, and not just by memorization to be able to devise new techniques to help the students understand math more and love the subject.
Guest professors from Japan demonstrated how math is just about patterns and basically just logic. I realized math is not hard. Math actually stimulates your creative thinking. There’re more ways to solve a problem than just by formulas. Math is fun.
I wish I was able to attend this seminar during my formative years. I wish my math teachers were able to attend the seminar. I wish my teacher attended the seminar.
I personally think that a more innovative way of teaching that induces the learner’s creative thinking is ore effective than trying to punch in the information on their heads.