The curtains closed on Mico University College’s International Mathematics Summit on Wednesday, leaving several teachers and other stakeholders in the education sector excited about mathematics and imparting the knowledge to students in an effort to also get them excited about the subject.

Among them was maths teacher in training Temeisha Roberts who told the Jamaica Observer that she found the summit to be very informative and described it as a brilliant concept.

“The main thing that stood out for me is that teachers should teach children where to look but not what to look for. I think that this will allow students to be creative and essentially have a deeper understanding of lessons taught,” she said.

“Going forward, I will be teaching my students that maths is in our everyday lives. This will spark their interest in the subject and will also allow them to see the importance of maths and understand that it isn’t just a subject but that is also applicable in everyday life,” Roberts added.

Kalando Wilmoth, an attendee at the summit said the presentations were informative and will aid teachers in rethinking how they go about teaching mathematics.

Adrian Adman, another attendee, called the summit an excellent concept and said that it should influence policy making decisions at the Ministry of Education.

It was announced at the summit that Jamaica will be a part of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), beginning in 2021.

PISA is a triennial international survey which evaluates education systems globally by testing the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students who are nearing the end of compulsory education in the subjects of mathematics, science and reading.

PISA assesses how well they can apply what they learn in school to real-life situations instead of how well they can memorise.

Dr Alfonso Echazarra, an education analyst from France said that children who are able to think critically do better than those who merely recite information to put on paper.

He believes that by participating in this international assessment, Jamaica will be able to move up on the International Mathematics Performance Curve to the levels of countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and China.

The maths summit was staged at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston from March 25-27 partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank and the University of Plymouth.

— Shanae Stewart