The last years of the 20th century saw the development, in many countries, of universal secondary education. This meant that all students, regardless of their ability or interest in Mathematics, were required to continue learning Mathematics until the end of their secondary education.
In the past, students graduating from high school mathematics classrooms were, for the most part, “mathematical-logical” thinkers. This meant that the ‘chalk and talk’ approach and multiple practice exercises for the pedagogue worked for these students. But, with all students attending high school, their learning styles did not work with this traditional pedagogue. This meant that the pedagogues of Mathematics teaching had to change. In addition, there was a need for massive changes in the syllabi to bring them in line with modern developments in Mathematics, particularly with the advent of computer technology. To further complicate the problem, if a teacher used a variety of pedagogues, the teacher needed to use an evaluation process that reflected that pedagogue.
This meant that my teaching pedagogue had to expand to cater for all my students, as well as the requirements of modern syllabuses in Mathematics.
Below is how I tried to make Mathematics more attractive to my students at the beginning of the 21st century. There are fourteen strategies that I used to help students want to be fully involved in their Mathematics development.
My student-centered strategies were:
1. Math had to be fun, relevant, and related to life.
I used strategies like a fun quiz, real life questions, easy to hard challenges, questions in unfamiliar contexts, and quick quizzes to name just a few strategies.
2. I try to teach Mathematics as I would have liked to be taught, not as I was taught.
Remember how you were often bored in “Math” classes and could not see the relevance of Mathematics in your life. Don’t let his students feel that way.
3. I used a variety of teaching strategies to fit the topics I was teaching.
Don’t let Math be just “chalk and talk” and practice multiple exercises. Use technology, cooperative learning techniques, hands-on material, practical lessons, the quiz, and any strategies that take into account the different learning styles of your students. Then evaluate each topic in a way that reflects your teaching approach.
4. I often used my students as assistant teachers.
I often used my most capable students as mentors in their areas of expertise. You may need to give them some training as a tutor, but I have found that the other students react well to your help and progress faster. The important thing about the mentor’s words is that they are in the student’s language. This allows the less able student to understand more quickly.
5. I set out to develop all the skills I could in all my students, regardless of their talent for mathematics.
The greater the range of skills I could teach my students, the better their chances for long-term success. These skills may include estimating, planning, how to check effectively, and how best to establish the solution to a problem.
6. I worked hard to help students develop their own understanding of mathematics, not just adopt my understanding.
In other words, I introduced the ideal of ‘constructivism’ into my teaching.
My teacher-focused strategies were:
7. I taught Mathematics through Stealth.
The quiz is an example of a way to stealthily create learning. It seems to be more fun than learning Math for many students.
8. Teaching Mathematics should be challenging, exciting, and fun for you, the teacher. it was for me
I searched for real life examples to use in my teaching and assessment. I included short problem solving/critical thinking exercises in each lesson. These don’t have to be difficult every time. For difficult examples, I would cue the students slowly.
9. I would experiment with new teaching approaches and then evaluate its success, revise the approach, plan a new version, and try again.
I introduce new teaching strategies into my program and refine them with a review process. These different strategies were adapted to the different learning styles of the students. Also, they added interesting new teaching challenges for me, as a teacher.
10. Working with elementary and high school classes allowed me the flexibility to experiment with new teaching and assessment approaches that I could use.
This is because the assessment results in these years are used to grade students internally rather than externally. If a new quiz task type didn’t work the first time, I changed it and tried the quiz task again. The original assignment may have produced a great learning experience rather than a valid assessment assignment for your students.
11. I shared my successes and my disasters with your colleagues.
This process became informal professional development for me and my colleagues. Sometimes a more experienced colleague would show me where I went wrong and how I could overcome disaster in the future.
12. I would model out loud in my classes what I was really thinking about a problem while producing a solution to the problem on the board.
Sometimes I went ahead with an approach that I knew would fail. I didn’t call it a failure, but rather a learning experience for my students. Being a “perfect” problem solver often discourages students who think they can’t match what you do. More often, I included, in my modeling, whatever ideas came to mind that I rejected. I explained why I rejected those ideas. I would model as many different solutions or approaches as time allowed. If a student came up with a different but mathematically correct solution, I would have them pass it on to the class.
13. I challenged myself to help students want to attend Math classes.
I tried to create a personal mindset that helps me develop lessons that I enjoy delivering to my students. This meant that I too would want to be there.
14. I incorporated the use of graphing calculators and computer programs as often as possible.
Students today are computer users. They relate well to technology. The beauty of the technology is that the teacher can visually demonstrate many examples of what is being discussed using computer software or graphing calculator applications projected on a screen. Understanding comes faster than the pen-on-paper strategies of the past.