Methods Of Teaching Mathematics

Topic of Assignment: Methods of Teaching Mathematics

METHODS OF TEACHING MATHEMATICS

INTRODUCTION
What is the best method to teach a certain topic? Or How can I enable children to
learn mathematics? These are some of the questions for which every teacher wants to
find a solution. Different methods of teaching mathematics have been proposed by
different educators and the knowledge of these methods may help in working out a
better teaching strategy. It is not appropriate for a teacher to commit to one particular
method. A teacher should adopt a teaching approach after considering the nature of
the children, their interests and maturity and the resources available. Every method
has certain merits and few demerits and it is the work of a teacher to decide which
method is best for the students. Some of the methods of teaching Mathematics are as
follows:
 Lecture Method
 Inductive-Deductive Method
 Heuristic Method (Discovery/Inquiry Method)
 Analytical-Synthetic Method
 Project Method
 Brain Storming
 Think-Pair-Share
 Learning by Doing
 Problem Solving Approach
All the above mentioned methods may not be equally appropriate and suitable for all
levels of mathematics teaching. The teacher, after knowing about all these methods,
their merits and demerits, should be able to make his/her own method by imbibing the
good qualities of all the methods.
The method finally adopted by the teacher must
 ensure maximum participation of the child,
 proceed from concrete to abstraction and
 provide knowledge at the understanding level

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Some of the above mentioned methods are discussed as follows:

The Lecture Method

The lecture method is the most widely used form of presentation. Every teacher has to
know how to develop and present a lecture. They also must understand the scopes and
limitations of this method.
 Lectures are used to introduce new topics, summarizing ideas, showing
relationships between theory and practice, reemphasizing main points, etc.
 This method is adaptable to many different settings (small or large
groups).
 It may be used to introduce a unit or a complete course.
 Finally, lectures can be effectively combined with other teaching methods
to give added meaning and direction.
The teaching lecture is favored by most teachers because it allows some active
participation by the students. The success of the teaching lecture depends upon the
teacher's ability to communicate effectively with the class. However in this method
the feedback is not very obvious and thus the teacher must develop a keen perception
for subtle responses from the class-facial expressions, manner of taking notes, and
apparent interest or disinterest in the lesson. The successful teacher will be able to
interpret the meaning of these reactions and adjust the lesson accordingly.
Preparing the Teaching Lecture
Planning: The following four steps are followed in the planning phase of preparation:
 Establishing the objective and desired outcomes;
 Researching the subject;
 Organizing the material; and
 Planning productive classroom activities.
In all stages of preparing for the teaching lecture, the teacher should support any point
to be covered with meaningful examples, comparisons, statistics, or testimony. While
developing the lesson, the teacher also should strongly consider the use of examples
and personal experiences related to the subject of the lesson.

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Rehearsing: After completing the preliminary planning and writing of the lesson
plan, the teacher should rehearse the lecture to build self-confidence. It helps to
smooth out the use notes, visual aids, and other instructional devices.

Delivering a lecture
Suitable Language: In the teaching lecture, simple rather than complex words should
be used whenever possible. The teacher should not use substandard English. If the
subject matter includes technical terms, the teacher should clearly define each one so
that no student is in doubt about its meaning. Whenever possible, the teacher should
use specific rather than general words.
Tone and Pace: Another way the teacher can add life to the lecture is to vary his or
her tone of voice and pace of speaking. In addition, using sentences of different length
also helps. To ensure clarity and variety, the teacher should normally use sentences of
short and medium length.
Use of notes: For a teacher notes are a must because they help keep the lecture on
track. The teacher should use them modestly and should make no effort to hide them
from the students. Notes may be written legibly or typed, and they should be placed
where they can be consulted easily.

Advantages of the Lecture method: Lecture method

 Gives the teacher the chance to expose students to all kinds of material.
 Allows the teacher to precisely determine the aims, content, organization,
pace and direction of a presentation.
 Can be used to arouse interest in a subject.
 Can complement and clarify text material.
 Complements certain individual learning preferences.
 Facilitates large-class communication.
Disadvantages of the Lecture Method
 Places students in a passive rather than an active role, which hinders
learning.

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 Encourages one-way communication; therefore, the lecturer must make a

conscious effort to become aware of student problems and student
understanding of content without verbal feedback.
 Requires a considerable amount of unguided student time outside of the
classroom to enable understanding and long-term retention of content.
 Requires the teacher to have effective speaking skills.

Inductive-Deductive Method
Induction is that form of reasoning in which a general law is derived from a study of
particular objects or specific processes. Students use measurements, manipulators or
constructive activities and patterns etc to discover a relationship. They later formulate
a law or rule about that relationship based on their observations, experiences,
inferences and conclusions.
Example 1: Ask pupils to draw a number of triangles. Ask them to measure the three
angles of each triangle and find their sum. They will find that the sum of the three
angles of all triangles is 180o.
Example 2: Ask pupils to find the sum of two odd numbers like 3+5=8, 5+7=12,
9+11=20, etc. They will find that the sum of two odd numbers is an even number.
Deduction is the method in which the law is accepted and then applied to a number of
specific examples. The child does not discover the law but develops skills in applying
the same, proceeds from general to particular or abstract to concrete.
Steps in the inductive method:
1) The first step is clear recognition of the problem. It should be clearly understood
and defined by the pupils.
2) Once the problem has been defined, the child should start searching for data from
all possible sources like books, magazines, journals, making visits to certain places
etc.
3) Under the guidance of the teacher, the pupils organize the data which they have
collected from various sources. They select relevant data and discard irrelevant
material.
4) By studying particular instances, the pupils frame possible solutions.
5) These solutions are discussed, argued and judged. Thus tentative solutions are
eliminated and only the probable solutions remain.

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6) The solutions are applied to the situation and results are verified.
Merits of Inductive method
1) This method is psychological. The student feels interested in experiments,
experiences and discoveries.
2) This method fosters independence and self-confidence in the pupil which proves
very useful in later life.
3) In this method, children discover the solution themselves. Hence it develops and
encourages initiative and creative thinking.
4) All that is learnt using inductive method is remembered easily as it is self-acquired.
5) In this method, the pupils observe and analyze particular objects of similar and
different nature and try to arrive at general truth.
6) Inductive method takes into consideration all the maxims of good teaching. The
process of induction calls for perception, reasoning, judgment and generalization.

Steps involved in deductive method

1) Like the inductive method, the first step is the clear understanding of the problem.
2) It may involve the study of a particular thing and phenomenon.
3) Principles and generalizations are reviewed to find the one which may be
applicable to find a solution.
4) In this step the rule, principle or generalization is applied to a problem and
inference is formulated that the problem falls under such rule, principle or
generalization.
5) Verification of the inference is done by applying it to a case. If it solves the
problem then it is accepted otherwise the procedure is repeated to find the correct one.
Merits of deductive method
1) Deductive method is short and time-saving. It takes little time to solve the problem
by predetermined formulae.
2) In the deductive method, the teacher’s work is very much simplified. He/she
simply gives a rule and asks the pupils to verify it by application to several concrete
examples. For example, students are told that the area of rectangle = Length x
Breadth. Then a few sums are solved before the students. The students apply these
formulae to solve these problems and they memorize it for future use.
3) This method is very useful for small children because with small children we
generally use story or telling method.

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4) This method glorifies memory, as the students have to memorize a considerable

number of formulae and definitions.
5) This method is adequate and advantageous during practice and revision stage.

Inductive Method Deductive Method-A Comparison

1. It proceeds from particular to general; 1. It proceeds from general to particular;
concrete to abstract. abstract to concrete.
2. It takes care of the needs of the pupils. 2. In this method facts are thrust upon the
It is a developmental process and takes pupils. The principle of growth is not
them through easy to difficult phase. considered.
3. It encourages ‘discovery’ and 3. The authority decides or gives the
stimulates thinking. formula and encourages memorization.
4. The generalization or rule is 4. The rule is given to the child. He does
formulated by the child; therefore he not appreciate its nature and is likely to
remembers it with ease. forget it easily.
5. The how and why of the process is 5. The process is taken for granted and
made clear through reasoning. accepted without reasoning.
6. It starts from observation and direct 6. Does not encourage learning but it
experience and ends in developing a rule starts with a rule and provides for practice
in abstract form. and applications.
7. It encourages child participation and 7. It demands individual learning and
group work. treats the child as a passive recipient.

So it can be concluded that in inductive method we proceed from particular instances

to general laws or formulae. Through this method, children discover many new things
themselves and learning becomes very easy. It provides self-reliance and confidence
in the students. Inductive method is slow and safe as the general law is reached step-
by-step. Students climb up the stairs of thought leading to definitions, principles or
rules.

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In deductive method, we start with general law or formulae and then solve particular
problems by applying this law or formulae. It is a method of verification and
explanation and provides instruction. Deduction can give us the formal validity
because the rule is taken for granted. The aim of this method is to fit the pupil
generally for the battle of life.
In actual practice of teaching, the combination of Induction and Deduction must be
practised. The laws should be discovered by pupils inductively and they must be
further verified deductively through applications to new situations.
Heuristic Method (Discovery/Inquiry Method)

Discovery through Inquiry adapts the Scientific method. It organizes investigation of

real world phenomena into four steps. Each step has a series of tasks that lead to the
next step or the conclusion of the investigation. The process involves an inquiry
strategy that uses questions and the seeking of answers to guide the investigation as it
proceeds.

Step I: Wondering:
What do we want to discover?
1. Make observations on real world phenomena related to topic of study.
2. Connect observations to topic and possibly subtopic of study.
3. Identify questions to be answered or problems to be solved.

Step II: Designing:

How can we find out?
1. Create hypothesis
2. Design methods to test hypothesis
3. Develop means to collect and analyze data

Step III: Investigating:

What are we finding out?
1. Conduct experiments to test hypothesis
2. Record data
3. Organize and analyze data
4. Prove or revisit and revise hypothesis

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Step IV: Discovery:

What did we discover?
1. State conclusion(s) after analyzing data
2. Determine validity of conclusion(s)
3. Construct meaning by connecting to real world.

Heuristic Method (Discovery/Inquiry Method) of teaching is simply the process of

allowing the students to take the leading role in their own learning experiences. The
teacher becomes a facilitator and guide, making it possible for the learner to reach
mutually-agreed-upon goals. The teacher serves as a resource person to stimulate,
motivate, clarify, and explain.

The atmosphere in which such teaching takes place must be informal and non-
threatening. In order for discovery teaching to be effective, the environment
(including the teacher’s attitude) must contribute to rather than detract from the
attaining of objectives. Rather than forcing his idea of content, the teacher attempts to
keep his hands off the learning process whenever and wherever the student can carry
it on for himself.

Discovery teaching brings four basic components of the educational setting into
interaction: the student, the teacher, the environment, and the content.
 The student is an active participant who solves problems which he
understands through the process of structuring his own learning
experiences.
 The teacher plays the role of resource person and a facilitator.
 The environment includes both freedom and structure with freedom having
the upper hand.
 The content may very well be propositional truth in a general context,
waiting in the proper place for the student to track it down, confront it, and
capture it for his own.

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An effective discovery leader must be a mature teacher who knows not only the
subject matter of the current lesson, but has an in-depth understanding of the subject.
The students have to be a willing participant, ready to explore numerous avenues of
information and to appreciate new findings in the light of previous information. A
number of diverse methods can be used within the framework of discovery learning,
since any single student may approach his subject matter from different perspectives.
Surely, numerous different approaches will be adopted within the total group.

Importance: Heuristic Method (Discovery/Inquiry Method) of teaching

 Allows for individualistic accomplishments.
 Is highly adaptive and versatile, limited only by the imagination of the
participants at both the teacher and student level.
 Allows for free expression of individual creativity. It is a concept of
learning about which we talk much and do little.
 Develops the relationship of students to teachers and of students to
students.

Problems: In Heuristic Method (Discovery/Inquiry Method) of teaching

 Many students feel insecure in an unstructured environment of learning.
 It is much more comfortable to be able to listen to a lecture and take notes
in orderly fashion than to be confronted with the haunting question, “What
do you want to learn about this subject, and how do you propose to learn
it?”
 If responsibilities are not taken seriously by the participants, the whole
process could get out of control.
 It is also a time-consuming method.

Principles for Effective Teaching by Heuristic Method (Discovery/Inquiry

Method) of Teaching: To get the best results, a teacher must
 Encourage the questioning mind, and equip students with skills for finding
the answers.
 Suggest resources, but refrain from doing the research for the learner.
 Train the students to think

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 Challenge the answers they suggest and not be satisfied with the easy
answer they are ‘supposed to get.’
 Insist the pupils to give evidence and make a convincing case for what
they think and say.
 Ensure that all resources are available and usable by the student.
 Teach the students how to use various resources as they track their
solutions through books, articles, films, recordings, maps, experiences,
projects, and most important, other people.
Project Method

This method aims to bring practically designed experience into the classroom. Often
conducted over a period of three to six months, the projects give students an
opportunity to work in a team environment and apply theory learned in the classroom.
There are some parts of the curriculum in which children are necessarily dependent on
the teacher and others in which children can work more independently.
Project work is more likely to constitute the more informal part of the program, the
part where they have greater autonomy in the development of their work than when
involved in teacher directed instruction.
Project work can be seen as providing complementary learning opportunities to
children in which they not only need to know how to use a skill but also when to use
it. They need to learn to recognize for themselves the contexts in which the skill might
be useful and the purposes which it can most appropriately serve.
In project work they apply those skills in meaningful contexts. The project work can
be seen as the part of the curriculum which is planned in negotiation with the children
and which supports and extends the more formal and teacher directed instructional
elements.

Scope and Strategies

This method is appropriate for any level, but is often employed for senior levels of
education. Using projects usually requires a lot of preparation by the teacher.
Some tips in this regard are as follows:
 Realize that the product of the project is not as important as the processes

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 It is not important that the students determine an optimal design. What is

important, however, is that they experience the design process.
 It is important that the scope of the project is reasonable; care must be taken to
ensure that the students are not overloaded.
 When possible, divide the project into sections and set dates for the
submission of each section.
 Assign projects to teams of two or three students to allow in-depth efforts, and
to promote interaction among the students.

MATHEMATICS PROJECT IDEAS FOR HIGH SCHOOL

Here is a selection of ideas for projects
1. How is a Cricket Tournament schedule worked out? How would you do
such a schedule bearing in mind distances between locations of games, home
team advantage etc.? Could you devise a good schedule for one of your local
competitions?
2. How do major hospitals schedule the use of operating theatres? Are they
doing it the best way possible so that the maximum number of operations is
done each day?
3. Build a physical model to prove the Pythagorean Theorem.
4. Find as many triangles as you can with integer sides and a simple linear
relation between the angles. What about the special case when the triangle is
right-angled?
5. Build a true scale model of the solar system
6. Investigate the history of pi and find the ways in which it can be
approximated.
7. Construct a Kaleidoscope. Investigate its history and the mathematics of
symmetry.
8. Explore the history and use of the Abacus.
9. Investigate card tricks and other magic tricks based in Mathematics

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