When reflecting our Mathematics lessons during school days, we often ask ourselves: “What did I learn during class that I am now using it in real life?”
If you remember, some of the topics we were expected to understand then ranged from Pythagoras’s theorem to solving algebraic inequalities and identifying angles on parallel lines, and much more. The question is: Did we even need to know half of that to get by and thrive at the workplace?
Today, I can just pick up my iPhone and ask Siri voice recognition to solve “X cubed plus 2x plus one equals zero”, and the answer will appear on my phone screen with three solutions presented with graphs and formulae.
Previously, a vast number of clerks were needed to perform calculations by hand every day before they disappeared with the appearance of calculators and spreadsheets that can do these tasks quicker. Nowadays, many jobs requiring only mathematical skills have been automated. Computers do a better job than people — even well-trained ones — in almost all cases.
So, what are the skills we need to acquire to survive the Fourth Industrial Revolution?
David Deming, associate professor of education and economics at Harvard University in the United States, said growth was especially strong among jobs that had high mathematics and social skills requirements.
He has mapped the changing needs of employers and identified key skills in the future job market. He said besides soft skills like sharing and negotiating, mathematical ability would be very much beneficial, too. We still need strong number skills because mathematics is still the world’s most successful system of problem solving.
Deming said the challenge was for educators to complement their teaching style with technical skills, like mathematics, and soft skills, such as logic and reasoning, to prepare the workers for the future.
Would that mean students need more mathematical literacy skills and less formal calculation skills to compete globally? If that is the case, rote learning might not be the answer, but unlocking the creative power of problem-solving is the way forward.
How then, would the approach to teaching mathematics change if the teaching and learning of math focused less on actual drill and skill, and more on problem solving and logic? One can be good at solving equations and calculations, but knowing how to use that in a given situation is a different story altogether.
However, there is also another argument that rote learning is to develop the skills to solve mathematical problems. A good example is to compare mathematics to music; you need to have technique to create a composition of your own. On the other hand, if we do not develop the basic facts of addition and multiplication or, later geometry and calculus, it becomes impossible for them to be creative.
Last year, a PT3 math question went viral, sparking debates for its correct answer. Some Netizens questioned its suitability to test students in mathematical skills.
The question reads: Tini lives on the 13th floor. She went down 15 floors to pick up a present she left in her car. She then went up to Safiah’s house. Izwan lives on the 10th floor. He went up 6 floors to call his cousin before going down to Safiah’s house. If Izwan and Tini’s movements were the same, which floor would Safiah’s house be?
To answer the question above involves four steps: define the question, translate it to mathematical formulation of that question, calculate or compute the answer in math-speak and then translate it back to answer your original question, verifying that it really does. Not the typical math question — students need mathematical literacy skills to actually read the whole paragraph and attempt to give the answer.
This is an example of a test in logic and reasoning skills that questions with word problems and real-world examples, not just to show students that mathematics is important outside the classroom, but to illustrate how it works.
And, if you take a look at Pisa (Programme for International Student Assessment) questions for mathematics, there are no equations to solve or problems to calculate. The questions look more like a logic examination than mathematical. For some questions, the linguistics are more complex than the math skills they seek to test.
To teach mathematics properly today, teachers will have to be clear on whether students are getting it wrong because they don’t understand the maths or because they cannot comprehend the questions.
In the example of the PT3 question above, a student attempting it may spend a great deal of time distracted by the information trying to read it successfully. Being a good reader is integral to solving the question and having the vocabulary is the key to success in both reading comprehension and mathematical reading. You can guess an unknown word from context in a novel, but in mathematics, if one word is not understood the entire sentence can be misconstrued.
As teaching language becomes a necessary part of teaching maths, teachers must then take up the challenge and teach both the content and the language of mathematics.
It was quoted that in Singapore, they train people for the jobs they can fill that when the students graduate, they find jobs straightaway. The nation has a world-class mathematics system with quality components aligned to produce students who learn to master the subject. Since the scheme, Singapore Maths, was introduced in the 1990s, Singapore has moved to the top of the global league table. Recently, the United Kingdom announced that they would adopt Singapore’s style of teaching math. Maybe, we, too, can learn from our neighbour on the formula for teaching mathematics.
Hazlina Aziz left her teaching career more than 20 years ago to take on different challenges beyond the conventional classroom. As NST’s education editor, the world is now her classroom