Authored By Harish R
How many times have we cursed our education system and its rote learning methods? Some of us keep it to ourself while others air their views in blogs and social networking sites. Very few of such people with the appropriate authority have tried and implemented methods in their teaching and academic setting that aim to stimulate the analytical thinking in children and not rote learn. Some of these methods have been successful while others have not been. But all these methods are aimed at helping the students to apply the knowledge they acquire to real world scenarios so that they learn the concepts better and are also motivated to do so.
One such person who is implementing novel methods to teach math is Dr. Conrad Wolfram. The following link is his talk in a Ted conference titled 'Teaching kids real math with computers'. By his method, students need to be taught how to apply math and not merely calculate mundane values and solve problems that never made any sense. He suggests doing this by giving problems to students that deal with real life scenarios that require applying math like deciding which life insurance policy is better in the given set and so on. This is a very good idea that can develop the analytical ability of students remarkably. He does not stop there but takes this one step further by suggesting that computers should be used to do complex calculations. In real life scenarios, the problems are not always so simple as solving a quadratic equation or calculating the integral of a simple eqation. Such complex calculations can be done easily and better for computers which were built for calculating. By making computers do complex calculations, students are trained in the suitable programming languages and programming too. He suggests ideas to implement this concept as a course in normal classes.
He has a website http://computerbasedmath.org in which he gives demonstrations and sample projects for implementing and taking this idea forward. While all this may seem to make students dumber at calculating, he says it does not. A student can write programs only if he knows how to solve a problem. So the student needs to know how to calculate to write a program which does that. Of course, the basics need to be taught on lower levels of school. On the upside, his method when implemented on a large scale or if it replaces the current system we have can produce stellar results. We will have students with high intellectual potential added to the society which is in dire need. I would not be surprised even if we have people like Dr. Charles Epps in the famous TV show Numb3rs in every house. Mathematicians will truly get the recognition they deserve in the society and scientific community. However, I do see certain hurdles in practicality and some negative effects as well. The first hurdle which I see is the need for so many intellectual teachers in the first place. Take for example the regular college teacher scenario. In India, the college teachers even in normal colleges are not so effective. This has been recognised by the ministry of human resources and to improve the standard NET and SET were made compulsory. The biggest fear of these teachers and lecturers is clearing this test. A large number of vacancies and job loss is expected because of this move which is to improve the standard of teachers. Think of the state of teachers in school level who need to be so good to teach math this way. Training facilities can be provided in cities but what will happen to the schools and teachers in rural areas. It is tougher to reach them and train them adequately. The second hurdle with respect to rural areas I see is the availability of infrastructure. To do problems on computers, we need computers first. Many public schools are known for poor infrastructure including weak buildings, lack of furniture, electricity and so on.
Providing and maintaining computers in such environments can prove to be quite a tough task in itself. What adds more to this difficulty is the fact that there are villages in our country where children are still sent to school for the free afternoon meal. It is tough for such students and places be exposed to proper computer education, programming and be expected to solve the problems in them. These two hurdles are possible in several schools in urban areas too. Apart from this, when this system of education is implemented some how, the students will definitely be attracted towards math education and the other subjects need to be developed to be equally interesting and beneficial. So what he suggests is not just revamping math education but the entire education system itself. No matter what we say, we agree on the fact that such high standard of education is very tough to achieve and not all students can get through it. It is my opinion that if in case this system of education gets implemented some how on a large scale, then our nation will definitely become a super power in no time at all and education will fulfill its true purpose. That is to make every man think on his own. The entire society will be driven by intellect. I would personally like to see it getting conceptualized in the near future. Until my next post, take care!
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riju
said:
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... Hi,Vry gud and informating Article, wish we have more teachers in this group to understand this and make a little difference in teaching Keep writing waiting for you next article...all the beat TC God bless....  |
