The Importance Of Mathematical Skills In Our Life
Mathematics is in everything we come across from the day we are born until the day weperish. It is not a categorical subject but extends into most, if not all, other academic subjects. It is present, although often invisible, in the music we listen to, the films we watchand the books we read. It affects the way in which we make small everyday decisions suchas the brand of cereal we choose purchase to larger decisions such as purchasing a home. Although we are unable to quantify an individual’s lifestyle, it is possible to explore to whatextent Mathematics is intertwined within every aspect of it.
Mathematics is an important life skill as crucial as the ability to communicate, expressemotion and self reflect. Mathematics, as a taught subject, is logical and its traditional problems produce either right or wrong answers; it is discrete. In contrast the underlyingskills gained from the way in which we approach these problems are transferrable andprevalent, sometimes subconsciously, in our approaches to other tasks which may even becreative. A musician will use notes and chords in a series of patterns. An art student will usesymmetry and geometry in approach to analysing work.
The purposes and needs of Mathematics are never-ending. One could spend an eternitythinking and listing every relatable interaction you could have with maths. An important purpose of Mathematics is to stimulate our minds to think both inside and outside the box. It is an important asset to have faced with difficult problems. However, more importantly,it’s absence can lead to poor decisions, through illogical thinking, leading to situations suchas financial hardship due to poor budgeting. Children start to learn basic mathematical concepts from the developmental stages of thelife (0-36 months).
There are many interactive baby activities and television programmes which begin to teach them to identify basic shapes, patterns and numerals. Very young children will also begin to understand one-to-one correspondence such as grouping sets andquantities (more or less of something). The basic fundamentals learnt by children in the early years are life are used as the corefoundation to start building knowledge upon once they begin to attend schools from theage of 4 onwards. Children at this age begin to reflect on why they are able to identifycertain shapes, and what properties they look for to be able to identify them. They will begin to learn counting with numerals and by doing basic arithmetic start to representingquantities as numbers with correct place values.
Simrenjeet Purwaha University of Nottingham Visible aids are essential to learning for children, and often adults, and are paramount inproviding context to numbers. Children will often count using fingers as a physical aid, ornumber of counters or other props in schools. As students grow older and have grasped the foundations teaching moves towards thetraditional classroom based learning with examples on boards, interactive activitiesfollowed by independent work to encourage independent understanding.
Following time spent in Key Stage 1 it became apparent that difficulties in the learning ofmathematics begins at very young ages. I observed that although children could do themathematic processes of counting, and often correctly represent numbers by place value,they had difficulty in assigning the relative value of these numbers. Following through to Key Stage 2 in the same school I witnessed children who very fluent in their times tableshowever struggled to understand the relationships between different number sets. i.e. thecommon similarities between multiples of 2 and the multiples of 4.
As highlighted earlier, Mathematics provides an essential skill set which is fundamental toeveryday life especially in a global environment which is growing more complex day by day. It is for this reason that it is so vital to teach Mathematics to children, at least up until thecurrent compulsory age of 16, the end of Key Stage 4. However, teaching Mathematics doesnot come without its issues and challenges. In recent decades it has become increasingly difficult to ‘classify’ an individual, and whilsttraditional methods still exist, many more factors are now included with up to different classgroups according to the BBC. Predictable relationships typically exist between factors andthese have a profound effect on attainment levels.
A factor highlighted by Leslie and Mendick is language and vocabulary. It is stated that school language can be viewed astraditional middle class and thus the use of such language in the classroom neglects thetraditional working class as they may not be as competent in their linguistics as their peersthisplaces them at a disadvantage. Unfortunately, stereotypes exist within us all as part of human nature. As teachers we arefaced with the issue of identifying our prejudices and stereotypes and consciously actingupon by not conforming to them. This can be related to ‘ability’ setting.
The wide majority of schools in the UK classify students by their mathematical ability. Often in three tier sets oflower ability, intermediate ability, and higher ability. From experience and discussion,children from poorer socioeconomic backgrounds tend to be placed in the lower abilitygroups as many factors have impacted the extent of their mathematical knowledge andlearning. The use of language such as ‘low ability’, ‘low motivation’, and ‘bottom set’reinforces their classified position in society. It focusses on what the child does not haverather than their individual potential and labels them as negative.
Another issue with ability teaching is the limitations it presents. Expectations of students inlower ability sets are lower and they are therefore only presented with restrictedcurriculum. Work is matched to their capabilities however sometimes can not challengethem and therefore restricts their attainment potential. Similarly, students in higher abilitygroups will only be taught up to their ‘group’ potential rather than focussing on individuals.
Simrenjeet Purwaha University of Nottinghamand therefore leaving students who have greater potential at a disadvantage. From my research it is evident that once placed in an ability set, it is uncommon for a student to bemoved to a different ability group causing students to be mismatched and consequently notperforming to the best of their individual potential. The ability set system is fundamentally flawed and unfair in that it presents moredisadvantages to children than advantages. It may make the role of the teacher easier by teaching specific content to specific groups. However, by creating groups we removestudent individuality. Each student is different and we should, to the best of our ability,differentiate between the need and potential of each individual.
