The Math Enigma!
Recently I stepped into a classroom. It was my friends tution center. I interacted with students of grade 7,8. They are from some of the top schools in my city.
I started interacting with them by asking a question, which subject they find as the most difficult and which is the next difficult.
As usual, the answer was Math and science..
Then my next question was which topics in math. Most of them said Geometry and only one kid said arithmetic (he is really struggling).
To diagnose the problem in Geometry, I asked them what do you find difficult in Geometry. Most of them said finding areas.
To further explore, I asked what type of problems in areas- calculating areas of circle, triangle, square etc or areas of ring etc.
They said basic level area of circle..
Then I gave a problem..
Find the area of circle if radius =5cm, 0.2cm and 7/22cm.
Guess which problem they struggled the most to calculate??
All of them were able to put the formula correct. So breakdown was not at formula level.
But they were struggling at calculation as it involves multiplication and division.. These skills should have been mastered by their primary school. That left me thinking what can we do about it.
The more I think of math the more I am convinced that level based approach is the need of the hour if we want the kids to have productive learning in the classroom. Atleast a strong *level based remedial* is an absolute must.
Otherwise all our efforts are illusory. Everyone seems to be doing hardwork ( teachers saying they completed portion on time, conducted so many slip tests, students coming to school regularly, copying the problems in books) but the outcome is not seen.
The crux of the problem is that, math is a subject that requires *absolute mastery of prerequisites*. With out mastery of prerequisites, no matter how many problems we give of the same type, the child can't progress.
Let me elaborate through a simple example- A simple division problem 235/7 requires the child to know the following things.
1) 7 table
2) Comparing of numbers (they should know 7*3 =21 is closer to 23 and less than 23)
3) Subtraction
4) place values
A child can do division only when all the above four skills were mastered previously and knows or is able to visualise the division algorithm. Even if they are struggling in one of these, their progress in division is going to be hard. Any number of problems teachers solve on board and ask students to copy cannot help children to improve. In my view it’s ineffective use of everyones effort. The treatment required is to identify the gap and start teaching from there but not giving more division problems.
Key Problem:
Schools are busy completing portion without even looking at the mastery of the child. The gaps are accumulating year after year and this is leadi*trapped in a vicious blame game cycle.ng to disinterest or phobia in students and frustration amongst teachers that their efforts are not showing result and the blame goes on in the name of students are not concentrating. We are *trapped in a vicious blame game cycle.*
Is there a way out????
Luckily yes but it requires *courageous decisions on the part of school leaders* in the form of creating a remedial period to address such gaps, *smart work from teachers* to identify the gaps and then support them at the right level. Unless we do this, I don’t think our kids will make progress and generations of kids maybe saying math is the most difficult subject for them.
