ISSUES IN LEARNING AND TEACHING: MATHEMATICS

Prof. ANANT VYAWAHARE, M. MOHOTA SCIENCE COLLEGE, NAGPUR INDIA, vanant@nagpur.dot.net.in 1. Mathematics is a subject to be prepared mentally and manually both. It needs to practice this subject than to read only as a fiction for entertainment. Hence skill and intelligence to understand the subject are needed .Not only this, memory is equally an important factor .To understand the subject, three factors are responsible: pedagogy, Androgogy and Mathetics. (i) The subject communication does not exist in absence of proper pedagogy, the science of learning. This requires not only skill but also inborn genius quality to become a successful teacher. Expertise in pedagogy is based on the knowledge of the subject.. For this, teacher should be a lifelong learner; he should update his knowledge of subject. New researches in mathematics are poured in the treasure of mathematics. Knowledge, not information, is a basic requirement of a teacher. Pedagogy is an outcome of these factors. A creative teacher aims at the subject and the students both. If his fundamental concepts are clear, he can deliver the goods more effectively. Androgogy deals with the problems of teachings and learning in reference to mass education and adults. This has an implication to lifelong learning again. Burners cognitive theory and Rogers empathy models are useful to deal with Androgogy. A standard format cannot be derived to deal with this factor of education. Each case may have a different solution. A teacher in mathematics should have an instant and knowledge-based answer to overcome the situation. Mathetics is a science of individual learning. Mathetics has its own importance in this subject for the reason that unless the insight of the subject is not achieved, mere understanding and practice is not enough. Mathematics cannot be learnt en mass; an individual learning is necessary in order to fulfill the needs of every pupil. Collective learning may not be so effective for good outcome .It may be useful for general mathematics, but to acquire specialization, personalized system of instructions should be used to make the learning subject-specific.

(ii)

(i)

2 Retention and transfer of knowledge are the basic aims of teaching and learning mathematics. Psychomathematics, dealing with behavioral science towards mathematics learning, shows that in addition to concentration and hard work, insight of the subject is necessary. Learner should be able to think of the situation and be able to read between the lines, To every statement in mathematics, he should ask himself the question` Why` which may increase his grasp of the subject. Counterthinking also helps in retention of subject. 3. Mathematics teaching is a creative art and learning is science. Imagination in teaching and giving instructions is a model the teacher has to know. Teacher has to develop interest about the subject among the learners. This model will depend upon the requirements of learner. That is his primary goal. Mathematics includes classification of facts, recognition and reorganization of the sequences and relative significance. Objectivity, precession both in thought and practice are necessary for the achievement of these skills of teaching and learning. It is imperative that the teaching of mathematics reflect objectivity, precession and challenge of verification in thought and action. 4. It is falsely presumed that a popular teacher in mathematics is one who does maximum frontal teaching and solves maximum problems. But this concept is misleading. A good teacher inspires and encourages students to work him or herself. He has to create the importance of learning the subject using his skills. He should be student friendly in the sense that he should not be merely a tutor or a counselor but makes the students to `do Mathematics. 5 One cannot learn mathematics without solving the problems and practicing the proofs of the theorems. The best way to understand a mathematical theory is to find a prototypal concrete example of theory and study it. Without solving problems not much can be done in the subject. It is because of this realization that abstractionism in mathematics is decaying. There are two ways of mathematical presentation. One is induction in which the theory is explained by examples first and then the proofs follow. It is explained as going for particular to general, simple to complex, local to global. Applied mathematics is a branch to be dot in this way. The other type is deduction in which the rules are mentioned and then the examples are given in the support of the theory. It is of the form: global perspective to local occurrence. The more general the presentation is the more useful it is for the learners. So there is a tie between the two concepts of inductivism and deductivism. But both are equally relevant. The axiomatic approach to mathematics is dealt by the deductive method.

6 There are sum small units of learning which are to be thought under cognitive approach. Behaviorism is an inductive approach whereas cognitivism in mathematics education is deductive. 7 There are four levels of learning: (i). Learning for knowledge of the subject: This gives a broad-based concept of mathematics. Every topic cannot be discussed in details but they are necessary a vital in applications. A student of mathematics should have the knowledge of all branches but he can be an expert in one or two heads. (ii). Learning for doing mathematics: This is required to attain the skill of the subject inspiration for higher development and attainment of competency in the subject. It will also lead to the stability and performance. (iii). Learning to live together: For collective responsibility, mutual understanding and sense of development of coexistence. This concept is global and is community based. (iv). Learning to `be for lifelong learning. This encourages selfdevelopment, personality and introspection. This leads to development of an individual in reference to community living. 8 For learning mathematics all the arguments mentioned above are directly or otherwise useful. Specially learning mathematics is learning to `do mathematics. The mathematical education aims at to make it communication effective both in theory and practice formal and nonformal systems, global and local also. 9 Good teaching is subtle and intuitive. Mathematics contents both finite and infinite. Hence inductivism and deductivism are equally relevant. Mathetics as mentioned above depends upon learners behavior and needs priority attentions for the uplift of the subject. Cognitive learning is useful for long term retention. Learning is achieved by practice only. The more he reads the more will be followed by the student. Mathetics is a non-ending process. Whatever a student sees, hears experiences his learning begins. Hence lifelong Mathetics is to be achieve by a student and his teacher. 10 Evaluation of what is taught and learnt needs to be discussed in the light of efforts for the popularization of mathematics. It is the responsibility of the teachers to make the subject popular, broad based

and application friendly. Considering the exception of low level students, the evaluation of students performance depends upon a good teacher only. Hence mathematics teacher has to lecture the subject along with self-evaluation. Teaching is not lecturing only; lecturing is to be supplemented by evaluation. Similarly, regular assignments will explain the depth of knowledge of a student. Hence, Mathetics includes evaluation along with learning.

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Reference: 1. B.P.Parashar, Teaching and learning Mathematics University News, AIU, New Delhi, India