...Int. J. Engng Ed. Vol. 14, No. 2, p. 145±152, 1998 Printed in Great Britain. 0949-149X/91 $3.00+0.00 # 1998 TEMPUS Publications. Teaching Mathematics to Engineering Students* S. S. SAZHIN School of Engineering, University of Brighton, Cockcroft Building, Moulsecoomb, Brighton BN2 4GL, UK Some new ideas in teaching mathematics to engineering students and the implementation of these ideas into the teaching of mechanical engineering students at Brighton University are discussed. The importance of explaining to the students why knowledge of mathematics is essential for their future practical work is emphasized. Mathematics is a language for expressing physical, chemical and engineering laws and general equations should be illustrated by practical numerical examples in order to transfer the surface/atomistic approach to learning to the deep/holistic one. Necessary steps in the manipulation of algebraic equations should be highlighted. Formal lecturers should be supplemented by compulsory reading, handouts, elements of small group teaching and formative assessment. The analysis of self-assessment forms completed by students show that they learn physical concepts much easier than mathematical concepts. forget what we are told but never forget what we see or discover for ourselves!' It was clear that I made at least two mistakes in designing my course. Firstly, the theory was indeed not properly balanced with practical applications. Secondly, the need for...
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...Teaching Mathematics to Visual-Spatial Learners Mathematics presents a number of challenges for learners that are challenged with auditory-sequential processing. Many topics in mathematics are often presented within a very verbal classroom environment. Solution methods are commonly presented in a stepwise process and build on previous knowledge. Visual-spatial learners identify with the presentation of an entire idea over a sum of its parts, and so adapting instructional methods with these learners in mind can help contribute to their success. VSLs also value seeing over listening, and actively create visual images when processing speech, so when only auditory queues are available, using very descriptive language is helpful. (Dixon, 1983) Various higher order outcomes revolve around problem solving, which can be a difficult task for anyone facing learning challenges, but for visual learners spatial reasoning can be used to their advantage. Presenting problems in two or three dimensions can allow students to visualize the problem in real space. Using physical manipulative, such as a mira for geometric reflections or algebra tiles for polynomial representations, provide concrete benefits. Pattern seeking and functional reasoning can be native skills in VSLs, so emphasis on graphing functions over strict numerical expressions can provide more meaningful insight into mathematical expressions. However, monotonous tasks like plotting ordered pairs will cause these students to struggle...
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...INFLUENCES IN THE TEACHING METHODS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL MATHEMATICS TEACHERS IN THE DISTRICT OF ORANI: AN INVESTIGATION ________________________ A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School Bataan Peninsula State University City of Balanga, Bataan _______________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in Education Major in Mathematics ______________________ by FAILLA B. PEPITO 2016 Chapter I THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND Introduction Caring classroom communities that are focused on mathematical goals help develop students’ mathematical identities and proficiencies (file:///D:/effective%20pedagogy.pdf). That’s why it is important that the school must have teachers using an appropriate method of transmitting knowledge and skills to the learners. Mathematics is the most international of all curriculum subjects, and mathematical understanding influences decision making in all areas of life either private, social, and civil. Mathematics education is a key to increasing the post-school and citizenship opportunities of young people, but today, as in the past, many students struggle with mathematics and become disaffected as they continually encounter obstacles to engagement. It is imperative, therefore, that we understand what effective mathematics teaching looks like—and what teachers can do to break this pattern (file:///D:/effective%20pedagogy...
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...PGCE Secondary Mathematics: Assignment 1 – The Teaching and Learning of Mathematics Part 1: The Nature and Place of Mathematics in the School Curriculum When I studied maths at secondary school I had no real understanding of its importance in our society, I enjoyed the satisfaction of solving problems but, like many young people, believed that maths was going to be unnecessary in the real world. As an adult it became abundantly clear to me that mathematics was a vital component in not just personal success but in the success of society. The notion of what mathematics should be taught and how it should be taught differs dramatically between different educational ideologies; Industrial Pragmatist, Mathematical Purists, Progressive Educator and Social Reformer. These ideologies are not real groups or organisations but represent the competing influences in mathematics education. “The industrial pragmatists see mathematics as an established collection of very useful techniques and skills that can be applied to a large range of technical and scientific contexts.” (Johnston-Wilder, Johnston-Wilder, Primm, & Lee, 2011) Mathematics is needed in the school curriculum for the prosperity of our country; industry needs the future workforce to have the necessary skills to push the economy forward. For this reason it is seen as important for education to provide good standards of numeracy, data handling skills and use of ICT. Although I acknowledge this is an important requirement...
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...TEACHING SCIENCE, MATHEMATICS, AND TECHNOLOGY Teaching Should Be Consistent With the Nature of Scientific Inquiry Science, mathematics, and technology are defined as much by what they do and how they do it as they are by the results they achieve. To understand them as ways of thinking and doing, as well as bodies of knowledge, requires that students have some experience with the kinds of thought and action that are typical of those fields. Teachers, therefore, should do the following: Start With Questions About Nature Sound teaching usually begins with questions and phenomena that are interesting and familiar to students, not with abstractions or phenomena outside their range of perception, understanding, or knowledge. Students need to get acquainted with the things around them—including devices, organisms, materials, shapes, and numbers—and to observe them, collect them, handle them, describe them, become puzzled by them, ask questions about them, argue about them, and then to try to find answers to their questions. Engage Students Actively Students need to have many and varied opportunities for collecting, sorting and cataloging; observing, note taking and sketching; interviewing, polling, and surveying; and using hand lenses, microscopes, thermometers, cameras, and other common instruments. They should dissect; measure, count, graph, and compute; explore the chemical properties of common substances; plant and cultivate; and systematically observe the social...
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...body of knowledge. There was more concentration towards the development of a certain form of thinking so that people could perceive issues within a certain line of thinking. This therefore means that individuals had to memorize some of these new adventures in order to ensure that they are informed or they are aligned to a certain school of thought. This situation has become the guiding principle in the teaching of mathematics as indicated by the statement. Mathematics lessons do not concentrate on teaching numeracy skills but inculcating certain skills among learners that will help them to coincide with the existing societal demands. Analysis Constructivism theory in teaching of mathematics Constructivism is a theory that gives insight to educational stakeholders on how to manage the learning and teaching process. According to the theory, a learner defines the direction of the learning process. According to Gordon (2009) constructivism suggests that without a learner there will be no form of schooling in the society. These arguments are based on heuristic concept in the teaching and learning process. Gordon (2009) indicates that the heuristic concept is the suggestion that teachers should guide learners in a fact finding mission. The role of the teacher is to create an...
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...TITLE PAGE THE ROLE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) IN TEACHING AND LEARNING OF MATHEMATICS IN FEDERAL COLLEGE OF EDUCATION (FCE), ZARIA KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA BY NAME | REG NUMBER | USMAN HAUWA | EZ/11/MACO/008 | MICHAEL GOTOM HELEN | EZ/11/MACO/036 | AKUBO OMERA ISAIAH | EZ/11/MACO/043 | SARKI DORATHY BELLO | EZ/11/MACO/089 | IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE AWARD OF NIGERIA CERTIFICATE IN EDUCATION (NCE), DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS, SCHOOL OF SCIENCE, FEDERAL COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, ZARIA JULY, 2014 APROVAL PAGE This project has been read and approved as meeting the requirement for the Award of Nigeria Certificate in Education in the School of Science, Mathematics Department, Federal College of Education, Zaria. ____________________________ _____________________ MAL. UMAR ISAH OHIMEGE DATE PROJECT SUPERVISOR _________________________ _______________________ MAL. SANI SAIDU DATE PROJECT COORDINATOR _________________________ _______________________ SHETTIMA MUSTAPHA DATE HEAD OF DEPARTMENT DEDICATION We whole-heartedly dedicate this research study to God Almighty for His guidance, protection, care and infinite mercy that He bestrode upon us throughout the period of our study, who is the sources of wisdom and knowledge. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT We whole-heartedly thank God Almighty for the opportunity He has granted to us to complete this piece of work successfully and for his infinite...
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...Good female teachers are more able to give encouragement to students with gentler voices. 2. Empathy It is true that many more women will also appear more empathic than men do. This isn’t always the case, of course, but it is for the majority of teachers. Empathy is important when it comes to teaching, and therefore one must be able to emotionally connect with the students. Having high emotional intelligence, of course, is important for anyone who works within the teaching industry. Knowing how to help the student overcome thoughts of whatever problems they are having will be key in getting them to focus on the task at hand. Female, might feel the need to help a lot more and would often guide their students through a particular process if they find they are having difficult. 3. Alternative methods Being more open to new ideas, women will also be likely to try out alternative methods. This is particularly useful for those who are finding it difficult to reach certain students. Men always have more problems than women in present because most of them do not have and know how to teach. Compare to women, they always study and practice it if they know they weak in teaching skill. Without great skill and right method, their students will be bore and lazy to study. Source: http://www.recom.org/forum/showthread.php?6440-Woman-makes-better-teacher-than-man Women make better teacher than men. A good female teacher would tend to be "motherly". She'll definitely be more...
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...Kid Can Say is an interesting and informative article written by Steven Reinhart, a mathematics teacher in Chippewa Falls, WI. One day Mr. Reinhart entered his classroom of middle school students and taught what he thought to be a masterpiece lesson. He thought he explained the mathematical concepts clearly and with much detail only to find out the next day that the students were confused. Although he took pride in his ability to teach math and received rave reviews from his principal, he realized there was something wrong. The achievement levels of his students were lower than they should be. Instead of blaming the students, he stepped back and began to examine himself. How was his teaching? This question led him into searching for and researching other methods of teaching math. He discovered the flaw in his method of teaching. He stated, “When I was in front of the class demonstrating and explaining, I was learning a great deal, but many of my students were not!” (2000). Reinhart decided to implement change in his teaching method. He had such a passion for his work and his students learning the concepts necessary for success in mathematics that he made it a goal to teach a topic in a better way than he had taught it before. This was a yearly goal and meant he would have to tread unfamiliar territory. Much of the material he gathered during his research suggested nontraditional methods of teaching. His oral and demonstrative instructional presentations would have to change. This...
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...(CAI) in teaching and learning mathematics. It also explores the use of Instructional Materials Aided Methods (IMAM) as a close substitute. From the study, it was clear that computer-aided instruction enhanced the students performance in mathematics The design of the study was experimental. The hypothesis were tested using T-ratio at 0.05 level of significance and a reliability index of 0.85 was calculated from the test items; while the data were analyzed using mean and standard deviation. Introduction One of the problems of teaching and learning is the method of imparting knowledge to learners. According to stone (1991), the major difficulty in sciences is the method by which the subjects were customarily taught without regard to instructional materials. The pedagogical approach in imparting knowledge to learners has become inadequate to their needs. Mathematics, like other science subjects, recorded poor students performance both in national and international examination (Ali, 1983). Many factors contributed to the performance of students in mathematics examination Akale, (1996), Okebukola and Jegede (1996), Ottiah (1997) and Ali (1998). The factors include: a. Inability of the mathematics teachers to put across the mathematics concepts to the students. b. Lack of skills and competence required for teaching mathematics. c. Shortage of qualified mathematics teachers. d. Lack of teaching materials and equipments. The above problems confronting the teaching and learning...
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...Ashley Hunter Ms.Lowry Eng. 1102 1 November 2012 Technology and Teaching Styles The concept of the newer technology is to improve the work done in classrooms and to give you a faster and more efficient way to research information without putting in that much work while still putting in your own ideas and thoughts. Today’s society use technology to handicap them, even in the classroom today. My question is will the different type of teaching styles used with or without technology affect students today? I believe yes, because technology is already making students lazy with just simply listening to music, doing research and other assignments done on the computer, and incorporating computers in the classroom setting will just hinder the students in the long run when it comes to knowing the information on paper. Think quest, an organization that studies the educational system of America in the colonial and post-colonial time period and author of the article American Elementary Schools in the early 1900s says the first formal school appeared in the 1630s. Boston Latin School was opened in 1635, and is considered to be the first town-supported school with a continuous history (par.1). In the middle colonies, such as Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, education was left to the governor and church groups (par.1). The rich children in the South had tutors that were from England. It wasn't hard to become a teacher, anyone who could read or write was allowed to teach...
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...for these young children. The curriculum I have chosen is for the age group of pre-kindergarteners. Preschool education is very important because well as we know it is our very first step into the next twelve years of school education. At such a young age children look up to their parents and teachers to help guide them by giving them information that will be helpful in their future education experiences. These kids are expecting this information so it will help them succeed. It is our job as teachers to make sure that these students are understanding the information we are feeding them in science, math, fine arts, and reading. I have many ideas in mind for my teaching in my preschool class. I will incorporate at least two examples of activities that I would practice with the class that coincide with the teaching philosophies. Many of...
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...Teaching Math in a Powerful Manner There are various ways to teach children math in a more powerful manner. Teachers need to understand that all children are unique and learn in various ways. In order to teach to the best of our abilities we need to teach them in the way they learn best. We also need to be sure that we are not lecturing our class. Lecturing a class is not teaching them, it is telling them what they need to know. We need to be sure that our teaching is intentional and relevant. If we want our students to do the best they can in our classroom then we need to teach in a more powerful manner. All children were raised differently and will learn math differently. It is our job as teachers to learn as much as we can about our students and their learning style preference. Some children prefer listening and some children are visual learners. Other children may prefer a tactile experience in the classroom. “Teachers must remember that while there are preferred input and output modalities, all children still need to develop their non preferred modalities. All these modes of input and output need to be used during lessons so that each child has the opportunity to use his or her strength and modality” (Tucker, 2006). It is our job to assess our students. We need to get to know them make sure that they know we care about them. We also need to be sure that our students know that we care about them and want them to succeed. When our children know that we have high expectations...
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...number of lower level students, one vision impaired student and one student with a diagnosis of ADHD. Both the teacher and the students have formed an understanding relationship where the students know what is expected of them with an understandable amount of reiterating of class rules throughout lessons due to the age group. This understanding allows the teacher to leave the class to do a lot of individual and inquiry based work. Activities When planning the lessons the contexts had to be taken into consideration; therefore needing to revolve around Mathematics for a Year 3 level and meet content descriptions and the requirements for the lesson sequence following the Australian Curriculum. Prior to the introductory lesson of dollar value and money, students had had no mathematical lessons taught to them on the subject. These lessons have been placed at the beginning of Term 3 as they are an introductory to a new topic of mathematics. At the beginning of each lesson students are encouraged to recall what they have learned in previous...
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...Most important, to be actively involved, students must engage in such higher-order thinking tasks as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Within this context, it is proposed that strategies promoting active learning be defined as instructional activities involving students in doing things and thinking about what they are doing’.Students and their learning needs are at the center of active learning which makes it very effective when introducing this pedagogical approach in any lesson. Some active-learning techniques are easier to use in your class and some are harder when it comes to teaching. Teaching methods are constantly changing with teacher and school introducing new pedagogical approaches to teaching, but time and time again active learning producing a much higher sense of achievement and accomplishment in comparison to the old didactic methods of route learning in school. Teaching is becoming more practical nowadays where students are becoming actively more and more involved in their learning. There is a big emphasis on relating the material students are covering to real life examples. Geoff Petty (2004) states ‘We learn by doing. Research shows that active learning is much better recalled, enjoyed and understood. Active methods require us to 'make our own meaning’, that is, develop our own conceptualisations of what we are learning. During this process we...
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