Mathematics for All University Students

I agree with the writer that the purpose or importance of math is misunderstood in the pakistani educational system. Math is essential indeed to any kind of major simply because it works your mental skills like nothing else. However, I`d like to share first hand experience here with math being taught in paki schools. I always used to have a hard time with math classes where I was scared of my instructor! There is always a wicked teacher behind students disliking math. Alongwith, making all kinds of resources available to students and teachers...I think math teachers should be trained to certain ways to teach math at intermediate levels...just to make kids comfy with the course and paint the picture of math monster to be a friendly monster who wont kill em.

I think so there is divide in humans, those who can do math and those who cannot. Reigns of power is often in hands of math have-not’s. I have always wondered how USA manages to attract best in math from all over world. Most US textbooks mention in their prefaces (even if it is lip service) the fact that math is kept at minimum. For example, I had the book “Dynamic Asset Pricing Theory, by Darrell Duffie”. Author claimed that he has kept math to a minimum but it takes a reading of first 2 pages to realize that he intends not to do so.

Not only math but computer programming should be taught to bio-science students. Modern bio-scientists will be expert in both. Because they will have to use both to make new genetics based discoveries. Keeping math out and emphasizing pencil drawing skill weeds out true scientists from the populations which gain entry into medical science courses. Once in medical courses many such students realize that drawing skill is least important part of their bag of tricks. Distortion in the population entering medical colleges gets reflected in kind of graduates which these colleges churn out. These graduates are only capable of using drugs manufactured by western drug making giants. These graduates are often themselves believers of miracle and most of them are good at rot memory but not good in original thinking. It is the original and creative thinking which contributes to advance of all sciences.

Part of the reason why math is unpopular is the fact that there is complete disregard of learning theoretic underpinning of any teaching effort when it comes to teaching math in schools. Math cannot be taught in same way as you would to a math graduate class. Average joe does not think in same way as a person experienced in handling math concepts. A new way of thinking in developing theories of how people fail to master math concepts is needed. Limits of pure abstract math oriented teaching effort should be found out by Educational Psychologists. By merely requiring math as a mandatory subject for aspiring bio-scientists is not going to solve the problem. One must make effort to find out how aspiring bio-scientists learn math concepts or how they fail to correctly learn them.

Division of labor between math have-not`s and math have`s will continue until new man evolves who will be capable of becoming expert in math as well non-math skills. But until then ways should found to equip predominantly non-math professional to use hard math in his field.

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By craziness I meant deviation-from-traditional-thinking-methods. I spoke like a traditionalist wanting to change the current setup, so yay! But it needs collective efforts, time and pointers like this one. It needs this, and it needs that. The problem is with the word `needs`. It`s a tired word.

Let`s join something!

Making maths exciting at the school, college and university levels has now become relatively easy. There is an awful lot of excellent free material (from complete lesson plans to animated graphics) that is available on the net, which teachers can use to first train themselves and then point students to it. Many students can also self-study using this. This can happen with the right encouragement from the government.

Looking back, I find that the maths I was taught at school in Karachi, was rather unexciting and poorly done. And this was at one of the better schools. Even the best teachers then knew little beyond the text books that we all used. What they were generally better at, than their students, was problem-solving.

Almost all problems that appeared in O and A levels were fairly routine and didn`t require much innovation on the part of the student. The overseas Cambridge curriculum has not progressed much (and Pakistanis sitting these exam ought to protest this). That however doesn`t hold for what the students are taught in Britain where their National Curriculum is rather exciting. It requires the students to develop good thinking and problem-solving skills through attemping challenging problems and using material (books, internet and audio-visual aids) that makes maths more relevant to life.

Providing affordable education for all is an important goal, but let`s not get side-tracked into discussing that. Right now maths teaching in even `good` educational institutes in Pakistan is pathetic. Changing this is what the article is about. One of the ways to do so is given in this note.

Isa, another way to express obsession with mathematics. But I like it. We need a little craziness sometimes :)

F

This article has nothing to offer on how to get people interested in mathematics.

This article has nothing to offer on how to get people interested in mathematics.

#2
``i think the problem in Pakistan is not the standard of education (which is quite high in good schools) - but the lack of affordable schools for the masses.``

Jibbe, I agree with you 100%

haideri

Well, I personally think this article is a bit of a joke - make math more exciting - by introducing exciting books....exciting books on maths??!!

but...on a serious note, I have not studied in Pakistan, therefore it is difficult to comment on the standards (which are indeed very high) - but in general I have found that many Pakistanis who study here and go abroad for further education lack one thing: the ability to dissect situation, and analyze them. This can be blamed on the fact that some systems do not encourage the use of the mind instead focus more on memorizing textbooks, dates, laws, etc.

So that should be developed, but in general i think the problem in Pakistan is not the standard of education (which is quite high in good schools) - but the lack of affordable schools for the masses.

Agreed!!

At the college level, the selection of mathematics vs. biology is a means to resolving the pre-medical vs. pre-engineering choices. Mathematics, indeed, is taught so poorly and the text books at the college level are so dry and boring... the students are bound to shy away from the subject. My school library had some amazing books on mathematics, both exciting and indulging... but very few cared to look at the mathematics section because of the `ghostly` image of the subject. Indeed, analytical and logical thinking and the numeric interpretation of data serves its purpose in all fields... however non-related to mathematics.

The actual purpose and usefulness of mathematics has to be unleashed... somehow!!