Why Math Is Important For Teaching Mathematics And How Students Learn Mathematics

Teacher’s Role. Teachers understand that students learn to persevere in solving challenging mathematics problems by being allowed to struggle with an appropriate degree of difficulty. “Figuring things out” is part of life and students need ample opportunities to practice these skills.

While there are many ways to be an outstanding teacher, every high-quality teacher should, in my opinion, have these skills and dispositions:

My purpose of teaching mathematics is to heighten ones math-knowledge, and increase his/her skill in thought and reasoning. To transmit the sense of joy and excitement I find in learning and applying mathematics, enable students to understand information around us, and prepare them for further studies in math and science.

A fellow educator would hear these answers as examples of the teacher’s ability to engage students in every lesson, her desire for all students to succeed, and her competence in subject matter. Although an outstanding educator exudes many other characteristics, these three qualities are essential for one to be considered an outstanding, high-quality teacher.

A question that sometimes is mentioned is how can algebra make our lives easier? Some people assume that our need for math is basic. This is saying that we should be fine as long as we can add, subtract, multiply, and divide. What these people do not realize is that algebra is used in our lives more than they think. For students, determining your grade-point-average (GPA) and understanding what is your class grade takes a bit of algebra to understand. For example, if a high school student wants to determine what their GPA for admission to a university, they have to know what numbers represent the letter grades. Traditionally,

“Each event is as completely unexpected as a ghost at the top of the stairs. Or the existence, in a ordinary classroom, of a profoundly beautiful object called pure mathematics” (King 15). In Jerry P. Kings novel, The Art of Mathematics, he presents the idea that most people go through math classes from elementary to high school not because we enjoy it, but because it is a requirement. We are taught simple arithmetic to trigonometry, bisectors within a triangle, and how tall a tree is by its angle from the top to the ground. While many do not find the importance or application between math and our daily lives, it is generally found boring and useless. It doesn’t help when some math teachers are just as uninterested, or find just a little value of math as the students. King continues on to explain how this

Today in age almost everything we do involves math, including jobs, bills, school, etc. Mathematics is required in the field of nursing mainly because of calculating dosages. It is used every day by nurses who need to figure out the precise quantity of a medication for a patient. If a medication error occurs, it could mean life or death. (Sobek)

In today’s society mathematics is a vital part of day-to-day life. No matter what a person is doing at home or at the workplace, he/she is constantly using different mathematics skills to simply function. Then what does this mean for mathematics education? When someone needs to utilize a skill every day then he/she needs a strong background in the skill. Therefore, today’s students need more than a just a working knowledge of mathematics or enough knowledge to pass a test. Today’s students need to understand how mathematics works and how to utilize mathematics skills in the best way possible.

Teachers also have to have special qualities to make them an effective teacher. According to Robert J. Walker teachers need to have twelve basic characteristics that he highlights in his article Twelve Characteristics of an Effective Teacher. The twelve characteristic included in the article are being prepared, positive attitude, high expectations, creative, fair, personal touch, sense of belonging, compassionate, have a sense of humor, respectful, forgiving and able to admit mistakes. I believe Walker has encompassed all the important characteristic of an effective teach. These are all characteristics that I possess, which will make me an effective teacher (Walker, 2008). Cathy L. Seeley believes there are ten roles teachers have in the classroom that she highlights in her article Ten Roles for Math teachers. I found these roles to be creative in description of their purpose. Those ten roles are: 1) An architect for creating a learning environment. 2) A composer for creating the tasks the student will engage. 3) A director because teachers determine how students will relate to each other, their tasks, and the environment. 4) A stockbroker which is where the teacher analyzes their own teaching and the students learning. 5) A ship captain, which deals with the unpredictable factors and make sure the students ' learning does not veer off course. 6) A red jacket which helps the students experience the connection between the different concepts of mathematics. 7) The

Mathematics, like every creation of man, have evolved without really knowing how far you can get with them: the scope of the computer, physics, chemistry, algebra, all are evidence of this. Every aspect of our culture is based in some way or another in Mathematics: language, music, dance, art, sculpture, architecture, biology, daily life. All these areas of measurements and calculations are accurate. Even in nature, everything follows a precise pattern and a precise order: a flower, a shell, a butterfly, day and night, the seasons. All this makes mathematics essential for human life and they can not be limited only to a matter within the school curriculum; here lies the importance of teaching math in a pleasure, enjoyable and understandable way. Mathematics is an aid to the development of the child and should be seen as an aid to life and not as an obstacle in their lifes.

Math instruction is very important. The mathematical practices from the CCSS really exemplify the importance of authentic math instruction. Mathematical principles naturally transfer to apply in many other aspects of life. Teaching these principles would truly improve the overall ability of students to think, reason, and engage meaningfully in new ideas. There are eight key mathematical principles which are as follows; “make sense of problems and persevere in solving them, reason abstractly and quantitatively, construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others, model with mathematics, use appropriate tools strategically, attend to precision, look for and make use of structure, and look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning” (Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2017). Each of these practices can be unpacked and applied in order to improve cognitive thought specifically in math.

Math Concepts. I chose to research how a child develops concepts and skills in math due to my current position as a math teacher. In math, learning can be fun and engaging if teachers plan their lessons around the best ways to develop these skills. Furthermore, many children and adults perceive math as difficult and believe either you are a math person or you are not, there is no gray area. There is a misconception that math is not easily learned. Therefore, my mission is to enhance my teaching knowledge and find ways to represent math as an enjoyable and learnable content subject.

Teaching is a difficult occupation. Teachers play an important part in training children, teenagers… So, a good teacher must have some special qualities. They are: knowledge, creation, confidence, empathy, sense of humor and passion.

Mathematics is the one of the most important subjects in our daily life and in most human activities the knowledge of mathematics is important. In the rapidly changing world and in the era of technology, mathematics plays an essential role. To understand the mechanized world and match with the newly developing information technology knowledge in mathematics is vital. Mathematics is the mother of all sciences. Without the knowledge of mathematics, nothing is possible in the world. The world cannot progress without mathematics. Mathematics fulfills most of the human needs related to diverse aspects of everyday life. Mathematics has been accepted as significant element of formal education from ancient period to the present day. Mathematics has a very important role in the classroom not only because of the relevance of the syllabus material, but because of the reasoning processes the student can develop.

Mathematics is the one of the most importance subject in our daily life and in most human activities the knowledge of mathematics is important. In the rapidly changing world and in the development of science and technology mathematics plays an essential role. To understand the mechanized world and match with the newly developing information technology knowledge in mathematics is vital. Mathematics is the mother of all sciences. Without the knowledge of mathematics, nothing is possible in the world. The world cannot progress without mathematics. Mathematics fulfills most of the human needs related to diverse aspects of everyday life. Mathematics has been accepted as significant element of formal education from ancient period to the present day. Mathematics has very important role in the classroom not only because of relevance of the syllabus material but because of the reasoning processes the student can develop.