Would you agree in the observation that nowadays, students don’t find math enjoyable anymore? When we try to ask primary students about their favorite subject, most of them will answer “Mathematics”. But when this students is about on their fourth or fifth grade and we try to ask the same question majority of them no longer find math enjoyable.

A Mathematics Coordinator for Jackson, Mississippi, Ann Boling, reports that beginning in 5^th grade, students in increasing numbers identify math as their least favorite subjects. According to her, this is due partly to the math curriculum, which becomes increasingly abstract and seemingly less connected to their everyday experience. Another contributing factor according to her is that, compared with other content areas, math at the higher grade level requires considerably higher level thinking skills. Which is actually required by the Department of Education.

The active learning techniques and use of manipulative prevalent in the lower grades have largely been abandoned in favour of an emphasis on paper and pencil drills by 5^th grade. But, Boling maintains that most middle school children have not made the leap from the concrete and semi-concrete stages of learning to the abstract stage. Mainly, however, Boling believes that math is made unpopular because of the way it is presented.

Boling recommends, therefore that teachers reintroduce active learning techniques and manipulatives. She suggests that whenever we begin a new topic, teachers consider supplementing the symbolic representation with a concrete activity and a pictorial representation. She recommends as well the use of manipulatives, such as pattern blocks or fraction bars, when studying fractions, models for geometry, two color\ chips for integral operations, hands-on measuring activities for measurement and lastly, balance scales for principles of solving equations. We should consider using appropriate activity for the age level of the students. Boling also suggest using team activities, such as math relays and cooperative learning groups. Most importantly, she stresses that in order to be able to internalize these abstract math concepts, students must have an opportunity to verbalize them.

“They Don’t Like Math? Well, Let’s Do Something!” by Ann Boling et al., Arithmetic Teacher, March 1991, Volume 38, Number 7 pp. 17-19

By: Lorna T. Villaruel | MAEd. SST II |Orani National High School-Main