STUDENTS in schools in Saint Lucia and the Caribbean Community continue to have difficulties with Mathematics.
In a previous article, it was revealed that student performance in mathematics is about average, or a little below average.
Now, at the time that I went to school as a child, the periods allocated to Mathematics were divided into Accuracy and Problems. Later, the slots were changed to Computational Skills and Problem Solving.
This article is intended to reveal that the Problem-Solving Approach to the teaching of Mathematics could go a very long way in improving student performance in the subject.
Students must be taught how to solve problems. The first step is for students to fully understand the problem presented. One of the common ways of doing this is for the teacher to question the students about the problem. Then the teacher should proceed to teach students problem-solving strategies. These strategies are useful methods of solving any type of problem. However, it should be noted that there is no standard method for solving problems.
A good technique is to put the students into small groups, if the class is not already fixed in that way, and get each group to solve the same problem cooperatively. In that way, different methods of solution can be compared.
Now, it must be pointed out that problem-solving should not be taught as a separate entity. It should be integrated into everyday mathematics activities or instructions and should be used at all levels, Infant, Junior and Primary.
Let me point out, that from the time a child enters school, he or she should be presented with mathematical problems relating to his or her surroundings. These problems should reflect the problem situations of real life.
Now, at the beginning of Infant school, students will learn to count with the use of items that they can manipulate and the use of a hundred board that they can visualise. This exercise will be followed by learning to add, subtract, multiply and divide, which is referred to as the four rules.
Now these activities will be meaningless and uninteresting to the students if they do not see and understand the relationship between these activities in their everyday lives.
Indeed, as mentioned earlier, teaching mathematical computations on one day, and teaching problem-solving on another day, could threaten the students when problem-solving is presented as a separate component of mathematics.
Now there are many advantages to teaching problem-solving. Problem-solving helps students to develop logical or critical thinking when they understand the relationship between mathematics and life in the real world; for example, buying and selling; travelling; banking; sharing; measuring, sequencing; designing; planning, and so on.
Indeed, problem-solving helps students develop logical or critical thinking since they have to decide which operations will enable them to arrive at the final solution.
Many teachers complain that one reason for not introducing word problems in the lower classes is because of the inability of the students to read fluently. Indeed, this is a serious error on the part of those teachers.
Simple, interesting and meaningful mathematical word problems could be used successfully to help students overcome their reading difficulties. Teachers could take the opportunity to highlight a few Language skills which will enable students to better understand the problem that they are dealing with. This technique could be referred to as a multi-skilled approach to teaching mathematics problem solving, which is quite in order.
Now, teachers, and parents too, should ensure that any problems that students are asked to solve are within their level of understanding and capabilities. The pre-requisite skills, as we say in education, needed for solving a particular problem must have been taught previously. Let me give you a simple example: Jerry has seven mangoes. His friend Thomas gave him three more mangoes. How many mangoes does Jerry have?
Indeed, the concept of addition should have been taught earlier. Students should have understood, as a pre-requisite skill, that addition means bringing things together. Then Jerry would understand that he has to bring together the mangoes he has in hand, together with those given to him by his friend Thomas, and get a total of ten mangoes in all.
I would like to emphasise that problems which are above the students’ cognition or level of understanding would serve as a deterrent and create frustration in students. All the reasons why very many students are ‘frightened’ of Mathematics, and do not perform very well in the subject.
Indeed, when helping students to solve problems, teachers and parents should have an open mind. They should understand clearly that no two students think exactly alike. In education, we say that there are individual differences among students and that several different approaches should be used in helping students solve problems.
Indeed, teachers must be very careful not to discourage students. A student who appears to be slow may solve, with ease, a problem which may seem difficult to most students and even to the teacher, using his own form of reasoning.
Mathematics problem-solving could be very exciting if it is taught properly.