Does Our Approach to Learning Mathematics Fail?

              According to the Clark County School District database in 2008, an approximation of 90 percent of high school students were not able to obtain a good foundation in Algebra I, 87 percent did not perform successfully in Algebra II, and 88 percent failed in Geometry. As a result, it led to many negative impacts on students’ learning processes, such as a low GPA and a low level of critical thinking. Behind these tremendous impacts, there are three significant factors that weaken students’ ability in developing Mathematical skills: bad teachers, failure to learn the materials, and difficult study environments associated with other personal issues

               

Learning math is beautiful

First of all, a student’s performance in mathematics depends on how his/her teachers perform in class. One of the most important factors that has a great influence on a student’s ability of comprehending a lecture is whether an instructor has a strong foreign accent. Even though Mathematics is more about applications and numerical facts, understanding teachers’ presentations of the material in class is also important. Therefore, a barrier of la

nguage may cause many difficulties toward students’ learning process. Moreover, Mathematics is an unlimited series of knowledge in which each element connects together to create a strong foundation in Mathematics. In other words, a teacher’s responsibility is to convey an interest and a beauty of Math to students in a clear manner. A failure of an instructor is an inability to explain mathematically the techniques as well as to point out the mistakes in the process. Nowadays, teachers tend to say, “You should have known the material from last year; other than that, I’m not going to review it again.” This obstacle between a student and teacher also leads to another important impact that negatively affects a student’s performance in the mathematics field. In addition to a student’s performance, it’ hard to collaborate if the relationship between teacher and student is not going well. Students tend to perform unsuccessfully if they feel animosity towards their instructor. Therefore, it’s important for teachers to keep their students interested in Mathematics.

Do we fail in teaching math?

               In general, Mathematics is a mandatory subject that every high school student has to take every year in order to graduate. Beside the fact that unqualified teaching skill may cause stumbling blocks in a student’s learning process, Mathematics itself is the toughest subject in a scientific field. As Albert Einstein once said, “Pure Mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.” Due to the variety of ways to solve a problem, Math seems to challenge students’ abilities to brainstorm and apply their knowledge. According to the research from the University of California, Los Angeles, an estimation of sixty percent of college students who initially major in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math), end up transferring their dreams to a less numerical field due to a weak foundation. Mathematics is not simply a set of rules as we have learnt in K-12; it is more about a training of a mind to think logically and creatively. One study of Rusczyk, the owner of the Art of Problem Solving program, shows that students who have participated in Math Clubs and contests are more prepared and accustomed to face rigorous problems than those who only have attended regular classes. That is to say, the benefit that students earn in learning Mathematics is an ideal ability to think out of the box in many scientific and technical curricula. It also teaches us how to approach a problem in different angles by using various methods instead of using a solid set of rules to get to final destination. Therefore, having a strong foundation of Math is important in defining whether a student succeeds in this subject.

               Following the two main factors above, a student’s failure to meet the standard expectations in Math also depends on their study environment and personal issues. The first step towards an effective learning is to create ideal study environments that might utilize students’ productivity. As it is explained earlier, doing mathematics contains several complicated steps, surrounding factors such as background noise, lighting, other activities might distract students from concentrating on studying. Once students are not able to focus, the percentage of having correct answers will decrease in the process. Therefore, eliminating distractions will allow students to be productive as well as to ensure their academic success. On the other hand, personal issues such as family influences, lack of motivation and negative attitudes toward Math also limit the ability to excel this subject. For instance, students tend to perform badly in Math if their family members do not have a strong academic background, or those who do not major in STEM intend to put less efforts than the required study program classes. In other words, bad performance in Math is not only influenced by instructors and an ability to think creatively, it is also affected by the study environment and personal issue towards students’ paths of success.

               All in all, many students nowadays do not pay attention in Math class as much as they do in their favorite subjects due to three factors: the instructors’ faulty teaching skills, their inability to creatively brainstorm in Mathematics, and some personal issues. Teachers’ inability to present Math as a subject that requires creative brainstorming has resulted in students seeing it as simply a memorization of facts and formulas. However, if students see Math as requiring creative brainstorming, more students precisely think Math as being incompatible with their interest will be intrigued by the study of Math.  As more study Math, this will increase the society’s confidence in Math and provide more support for the study of Math with future generations.