Mathematics teaching means helping the student acquire skills to solve mathematical problems and apply them in different fields. Mathematical teaching is different from another major subject because the main aim is to understand the concept and how it is applied to solve problems. Mathematical teachers apply different teaching methods that are meant to reach different goals. For example, some teachers teach their students to pass an exam and others teach their students to understand. On this short paper, the aim is to explore key course concepts and to explore the differences between teaching mathematics for testing and teaching for students’ learning.
Different approaches are taken in teaching mathematics depending on the desired outcome of the teaching process. There exist a big difference in the teaching process for testing and learning purposes. Mathematics learning is highly dependent on the purpose of the teacher. A major difference is that teaching for an exam only requires students to have the concepts that are necessary to pass exams while teaching for learning is meant to have the concepts stick in learners’ brain. Teachers must consider the teaching approach to consider.
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One of the most adopted methods in teaching mathematics for learning purposes is writing in the math curriculum. In teaching to learn, writing in math curriculum encourage students to express their ideas and deepen content understanding. Tutors today require the students to write points in mathematics to explain the reasoning to show that they understand what they are doing (Doty, 2012). In addition, teachers apply Common Core State Standards which shift from the traditional approach of mathematics memorizing to deepen understanding and application of concepts in solving problems in the real world. Research indicates that the application of technology such as forums, chats, and blogs in a mathematics classroom make the subject interesting and has additional benefits beyond the curriculum (Cooper, 2012).
According to Sousa (2015), teaching for the test, the teacher focuses on strict formal approaches, heavy memorizing and of theorems and abstract axioms. Mathematics becomes boring when teachers employ formal methods such as lecturing, focus on computation or repeating the same problems for a long time. Studying for the exam require students to memorize theorems and abstract axioms. Studying for the exam means that the concepts do not have to stay in the brain for long and that after the exam the student does not need to remember any of the concepts. Memorization of concepts means that the student needs the concepts only to pass the exam. It means that students find it hard to apply the knowledge learned in class in real-life situations outside classrooms. Teaching students to pass the exam, mean makes mathematics boring thus some students end up uninterested in mathematics and end up failing to understand mathematical concepts and how to apply them in real life.
Teachers play a deciding role in how the students learn mathematics. When the process becomes so formal students lose interest in learning mathematics. Students are demotivated when teachers use the same approach to teach while using the same examples. Adolescent students are interested in challenging mathematical problems that can help them improve the frontal lobe of their brains. Mathematics is an interesting subject but heavily depends on the approach taken by the teacher on teaching the subject. Modern teaching strategies advocate teaching mathematics for learning that employ writing and technology (Cooper, 2012).
References
Cooper, A. (2012). Today's technologies enhance writing in mathematics. The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues, and Ideas , 85 (2), 80-85.
Doty, L. L. (2012). A mathematician learns the basics of writing instruction: An immersion experience with long-term benefits. Primus , 22 (1), 14-29.
Sousa, D.A. (2015). How the brain learns mathematics (2nd ed.) . Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press
