Highlight, discuss and reflect on the current challenges in mathematics education in Australia.
Many students do not find mathematics fun or engaging, I always thought maths was a boring subject, however, since I started learning mathematics at university it has shifted the way I see Math. During my first class on EDMA241, the teacher asked everyone if they like maths yes/no, as expected majority of the class said no. This allowed me to think what has caused such a great impact on majority of students to dislike a subject so much. According to 2018 programme for international Assessment (PISA) results, Australian students mathematical literacy have declined heavily, therefore, it has been outperformed by other countries (Attard, 2020).
One of the biggest challenges Australia has faced is the apparent decline in senior secondary students as they do not take a high level mathematics course. This has significantly dropped the level of filed teachers who pick up mathematics as a discipline in university. The effect this has on the mathematic education in Australia is the pedagogy on how curriculum consists of two distinct, mathematical content and mathematical process. In order to allow high engagement in classrooms teaching content needs to be followed by the process, content should be taught through a problem-solving approach.
Allowing the students to engage and work in groups to complete activities and reflecting the activities in their everyday life (Kelly, 2017). This will allow students to understand that Math is all around them and with using such activities it allows them to have fun and engage. Following Vygotsky, ‘zone of proximal development’ which consists of collaboration, increases student’s knowledge and allows the students to engage with each other.
References:
Attard, C. (2020). Mathematics education in Australia: New decade, new opportunities?. Retrieved from https://engagingmaths.com/2020/01/21/mathematics-education-in-australia-new-decade-new-opportunities/
Kelly, G. (2017). Two (0r more) heads are better than one. Retrieved from https://consiliumeducation.com/itm/2017/01/04/two-or-more-heads-are-better-than-one/
Comments