Mathematics Learning and Teaching:
a student’s perspective
Learning of Mathematics starts from when we begin to learn how to count. Then we use Mathematics in our everyday lives, sometimes without even realizing. In these situations, what we needed to learn - the ‘basic numerical concepts’ - was nothing but a way of expressing ourselves (in a language), in order to communicate with and relate to others.
A widely used contemporary dictionary defines Mathematics as: “The science of numbers and their operations, interrelations, combinations, generalizations, and abstractions and of space configurations and their structure, measurement, transformations, and generalizations.” Mathematics is a science related to life that has been used and valued by people ever since the emergence of civilization or even before then, in many known and unknown ways. Paul Ernest suggests that, “We understand our lives through the conceptual meshes of the clock, calendar, working timetables, travel planning and timetables, finances and currencies, insurance, pensions, tax, measurements of weight, length, area and volume, graphical and geometric representations etc.”
Mathematical skills develop as we grow and get involved in more and more activities, for example: measuring flour while making cakes or maybe rushing to ‘the sale’ calculating (in our heads) how much money could be saved. What we need in these occasions is mostly common sense, a practical approach towards obtaining a solution and some prior experience.
Everyday Mathematics does not require the brains of an academic mathematician. Sometimes it is surprising how people even with barely any formal education can deal with calculations so quickly. From my own experience, I have seen people in Bangladesh without any academic background, dealing with calculations fairly quickly without any formal education, and there is a famous study of Brazilian street children.
So, what does learning Mathematics actually require? In my view, a national curriculum set for schools is required that bears in mind the social context and relevance to the current issues of an increasingly mathematized society. Basic mathematical skills should be taught to pupils in schools, because as a minimal mathematical capability is essential. I also think a different approach towards teaching Mathematics is necessary, involving the embedding of practical constructs alongside the academic theoretical ones. In this way, we can relate Mathematics to our everyday life, conceptualize the meanings of the theories and understand its importance. (...)
FONTE: Adapted from: ANSARI, Tasnuva. Mathematics Learning
and Teaching: a student’s perspective. Available in
www.londonmet.ac.uk/library/x39913_3.pdf
Accessed on June 9th , 2013.
