Novel programme uses a two-step pedagogy to beat the notion that only gifted students can understand Math. It stresses that learning can happen by understanding and understanding only. | Photo: Special Arrangement
What comes to your mind when someone says the number 75? Is it the written number itself that flashes in front of your eyes? Do you visualise it as seven ten rupee notes and a five rupee coin? Do you visualise it with sets of blocks or a line of beads? “Students not being able to visualise numbers is what’s missing from Maths education, that’s what is holding us back”, says Geeta Mahashabde, Director, Navnirmiti Learning Foundation, who has been working to universalise Math education.
Ms. Mahashabde and Vivek Monteiro, trade union activist and educationist, developed the Universal Active Math programme along with a large team of members and teachers. They believe universalization must be seen as a scientific problem. This means that it must be taken up with the same seriousness with which we send humans into space, or rockets to the moon, or with which we eliminate diseases like polio and small pox.
The pedagogy
This programme uses a two-step pedagogy to beat the notion that only gifted students can understand Math. It stresses that learning can happen by understanding and understanding only. “Even the last child in the class should like and understand maths. The whole class should be comfortable with the subject”, says Ms. Mahashabde.
In step one, children get introduced to maths through their fingers, actions, sounds, pictures and so on. They discover the concepts through these while solving problems given by teachers.
A child making a number. | Photo: Special Arrangement
In step two, the conceptual understanding is translated to the conventional written language of numbers and symbols. Ms. Mahashabde says that this method where children solve the problem in “things-language” — the step 1 — which helps builds their confidence and then translate their understanding into alphanumerics. The pedagogy can be applied from pre-primary to Class 10.
The teacher brings this method to life by attaching three blocks of one colour with three blocks of another colour. That’s her step one of teaching three plus three equals six. She then goes a step ahead and attaches one block of one colour with five blocks of another colour, to show that one plus five also equals six. In the next step, the teacher gets students to make different arrangements to get the number six and describe each arrangement with numbers. Some join six blocks of six different colours, some join two blocks each of three colours, etc.
In another technique, the teacher asks children to show the number five using both their hands. She asks them to think of different variations of both hands to arrive at the number five. In the next step, she asks students to construct or narrate a real life story. Some students say they have five members in the family. Some say they ate two idlis in the morning and three idlis in the afternoon. “This is where every child thinks for himself”, says Ms. Mahashabde.
To further teach multiplication as distinct from addition, the teacher gets the children to arranges blocks in a rectangle rather than a straight line. She presents students with workbooks that show the same concepts through similar pictures of blocks, which students are asked to solve. “In such exercises, all the kids have to think individually or in groups. That’s how comfort with the subject will come”, says Ms. Mahashabde.
Teaching kit for learning through things and numbers. | Photo: Special Arrangement
To make this pedagogy more effective, Ms. Mahashabde says, there is a need for certain types of classroom systems. For instance, she advises to refrain from taking answers in a chorus. She says it is better to ask students to write answers in their notebooks. “While some students are fast, some take a little more time to process numbers. That one extra minute is very important for everyone”, says Ms. Mahashabde.
Some might think it is difficult to implement these methods in a large classroom. Ms. Mahashabde says that it can be done by arranging students in a group. She suggests dividing students in groups of five, giving each group the same material. The children solve the problems in groups. The teacher asks a different child in the group in each round of problem-solving and ensures that every child is involved.
In another technique, she tells students that one clap equals the number ten and one finger means one. When asked to show the number 23, students should clap thrice and show three fingers. “Whoever claps extra, I have to pay attention to only that child. This way everyone understands and everyone finds time to think”, she says.
Our Universal Active Math Programme has been developed since 1999. It is field-tested with the objective of achieving math universalisation which means every child learns in every school. It is inspired by W. W. Sawyer, a mathematician, who had said that every student can learn maths and think mathematically.
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Published – December 06, 2024 07:19 pm IST