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Thursday, June 7, 2012

How to Improve Your Students' Mastery of Math?


If you are a teacher who is finding it hard to engage your students in class, you are not alone. Many teachers in the other schools and generations of teachers before them, have faced the challenge of getting their students interested in this traditionally dry academic subject.

All is not lost. There is light at the end of the tunnel. You can turn those unmotivated students into eager learners. By following the suggested techniques listed below, you just might turn your math class into the most anticipated class in their schedule.

1. Make students’ thinking and learning visible through Web 2.0 tools
With the popularity of the internet and Web 2.0 tools, students today are constantly using online platforms such as facebook and twitter to express themselves and reach out to the world.
By incorporating online discussions and providing opportunities for students to share their learning online, you make learning a more interactive and social process for the students. Most importantly, you begin to communicate in their language and they will respond positively.

2. Spice up the lesson with multimedia.
Include elements of fun in your lesson to break up the monotony in class. You do not have to deliver instruction and content in front of the class all the time. Make your math lesson more interesting by incorporating math games, music, videos and other online activities into your learning activities. By skilfully wrapping these interesting activities around a mathematical concept, you can achieve your lesson objective and yet have fun.

3. Relate learning with authentic real life examples.
Students are constantly exposed to tonnes of information daily. If they are not able to connect the math concept with their lives, they will find it hard to understand and are unable to retain the lesson taught. By showing how math concepts can be applied to real life examples, students begin to see the relevance and will be more likely to remember it.

4. Try flipping your classroom
When you are introducing a new concept, consider creating a short online package with videos to illustrate the concept and a short survey to check their understanding. Encourage students to view these contents prior to class. By analysing the result of the survey, you will know what are the common misconceptions faced by the students before the start of the lesson. You can spend more time addressing these learning gaps and answering students’ questions as they are engage in learning activities that elicit high order thinking skills.

5. Encourage students to create learning artefacts
To help students transfer their learning, you can design some end-of-topic activities that involve students creating a simple math game, composing a song ,creating a video or slideshow to illustrate their understanding. The purpose of these activities is to give students the opportunities to apply their understanding of the concept to create meaningful learning artefacts. Besides conceptual understanding, students will need to apply creativity and high-order thinking skills to communicate their ideas across to their target audience. These are certainly desirable outcomes of learning.

6. Stretch your gifted students.
As a teacher, you have a tendency to spend a more time helping weaker students who do not understand a concept. This will take time away from the gifted students, who would benefit from an additional challenge to stretch their ability. By designing self-directed online math modules that take the mathematical concept to the next level, the gifted students in your class can be actively engaged while you continue to narrow the performance gaps for the rest of the class.

7. Provide additional online resources to aid the weaker students.
In general, some students would need a little bit more time and space to understanding a concept and they would definitely benefit from differentiated instruction methods. To support this group of students without delaying the rest of the class, you can consider assigning the weaker students to review online learning materials such as self-directed online lessons, videos and online assessment as part of their homework.

By incorporating all of the above tips into your math lessons, you will better capture the attention of your students and increase their mastery of math. Give them a try today!

Friday, June 1, 2012

Improving Math with 8 simple steps


Throughout my teaching career, I have many students who are overwhelmed by this fear of math. “Math is hard” and “Math is boring” are common phrases in school. When I was a beginning teacher, getting them interested in the subject is one big challenge. Are they generally weaker then other students? Why are other students able to excel? Is there a secret formula that is waiting to be uncovered? So what does it take to help these students overcome this fear?

Thus I began this journey to look for answers. After interacting with many experienced educators and reading numerous articles, I realised that the main difference between the 2 groups of students is attitude. Students with a positive attitude are always actively looking for solutions and they ask a lot of questions. On the other hand, students who adopt a poor attitude towards learning give up easily when faced with problems and they seldom ask questions.

Learning is all about attitude. Instilling a positive attitude in our students is critical to their developmental success. Having a good attitude makes learning easier. To be able to excel in math. you can start by adopting a positive attitude towards the learning of math.

Below are 8 simple steps to cultivate positive attitude and habits that will help to improve one's skills in solving math problems.

1 – Acquire the concept

First and foremost, we have to develop a strong foundation in the basic mathematical concept. Instead of waiting for instruction, you need to be active in your learning and ask questions to clarify your doubts. With this understanding, we can then proceed to solve more complex problems confidently.

2 – Be familiar with the Mathematical terms

The language of mathematics can be quite daunting to the average students. You are encouraged to write notes to attach meanings to these mathematical terms to gain a better understanding of the mathematical concepts.

3 – Regular practice

Mathematics; at Primary and Secondary level, is a skill-based subject. It is important to practice so that we are familiar with the strategies and patterns of questioning techniques. Make mathematics part of your daily life, look for authentic examples around you (curiosity for learning) and this will increase you aptitude of the subject.

4 - Presentation

When solving math problems, it is advantageous to present the solution in a clear and concise manner. This will help you see the steps in a logical flow and spot any potential mistake quickly.

5 – Check your work

The old saying goes “Practice makes perfect”. I would like to add that if you are not doing it correctly, practice makes the imperfection more glaring instead. To achieve perfection, we need to guidance from mentors and be able to apply the right strategies.

Accuracy means a lot in mathematics. Do make it a habit to check your assignments for accuracy. If you encounter mistakes in your work, take the effort to find out why and correct your work. This would help to eliminate those common mistakes that you often make.

6 – Read widely

To broaden your knowledge in mathematics, you need to read widely beyond the school materials (eg. Math guide). This would help you in sharpening your math skills.

7 – Work with a mentor

As with any other subjects, you would need the help of a mentor (eg. Teacher, Lecturer) , who will be able to explain the concept clearly and guide you in solving more complex problems.

8 – Change your perception

Lastly, if you have a natural dislike for math, you might want to probe deep to uncover the root of the problem. If the cause is the lack of self confidence, you will need to find ways to boost yourself. As discussed earlier, regular practice and engaging a mentor are possible solutions. When you are confident of yourself, you will be able to approach any math problem with ease.