LOCAL expert math educators are emphasising a more discourse-driven approach to the teaching of the subject, which many students continue to dread.

Data based on performance in the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) show that student scores declined in 2011 after a slight improvement in 2010, with only 32 per cent of students passing the subject in 2011 compared to 40.9 per cent a year earlier.

Dr Tamika Benjamin and Pauline Thames-Baker, consultant mathematicians to the Mutual Building Societies Foundation (MBSF), has argued that the approach of most teachers to the subject is rigid; and this leaves students without a clear understanding of important mathematical concepts.

They were facilitating a capacity-building workshop for math teachers from the six rural high schools under the MBSF’s Centres of Excellence programme, held at the Medallion Hall Hotel in St Andrew recently.

“Children don’t necessarily fear math at the early stages. However, their early experiences influence the extent to which they are able to grasp more difficult concepts, particularly if they are taught in a very rigid way with no relationship being made between what they are taught and their everyday experiences,” said Benjamin.

“Teachers often teach concepts in an abstract manner and generalise or teach rules which sometimes are not always true,” she added, noting that it complicates the learning process as students discover that rules do not apply to all concepts.

Using the concept of fractions as an example, both Benjamin and Thames-Baker took teachers through a comprehensive practicum on how to prepare activities using simple manipulatives. They demonstrated, for example, how fraction strips or circles can be used to introduce the topic of equivalent fractions to students, instead of using the algorithm process.

The duo noted further that students should also be engaged in discussion to help them identify the patterns and relationships between the activity and the concept. According to Benjamin and Thames-Baker, while there are many teachers who use activities to explain concepts to students, the activities often lack interrogative discourse.

“The activities must be driven by question-led discussions. Failure to use this approach will result in the activities just being something done in class with little or no meaning. It is also important that we ask the students the right questions; failure to do this will also result in students not benefiting from the activity,” Benjamin stressed.

Judith Sedi, a math teacher at Godfrey Stewart High School in Westmoreland, one of the six Centres of Excellence schools, agreed with the senior educators. She maintained that rigorous discussion helps teachers to identify misunderstanding or disbelief among students.

“Often students believe the rules they are taught at the early (primary) stages and so they are often reluctant to let go because holding on to it makes them comfortable,” she commented.

Thames-Baker recommended that students be allowed to come to their own understanding and not simply be fed rules.

“When children come to an understanding by themselves — whether right or wrong — they become attached to it emotionally; and that’s why it’s very difficult for them to let go. It is, therefore, very important that we use practical examples in class so that the correct foundation is laid at the outset,” she said.

Benjamin, for her part, noted that if discourse is employed vigorously at the primary level, it will enrich learning and improve performance in secondary schools as well as at the tertiary level.

The $100-million Centres of Excellence programme was created and is managed by the Jamaica National Building Society and The Victoria Mutual Building Society through the MBSF to build leadership capacity and channel resources to six underperforming rural high schools. In addition to Godfrey Stewart High in Westmoreland, the high schools in the programme are McGrath High in St Catherine; Porus High and Mile Gully High in Manchester; Green Pond High in St James and Seaforth High in St Thomas.