By Adesina Wahab
A Professor of Mathematics Education, Department of Science and Technology Education at the Lagos State University, LASU, Rasheed Ishola Sanni, has blamed the mindset of some teachers of the subject who would not to “listen to” students, but rather “listen for” particular answers to particular questions, as one of the reasons students don’t do well in the subject.
According to Sanni, when teachers listen to students, they tend to see some sense in what the students say and realize that even when the students are wrong, their wrong submissions have root in some earlier learning concepts which are valid in certain instances, but not appropriate in the current instance.
Sanni stated this while delivering the 116th inaugural lecture of the university titled “Rethinking Mathematics teaching through pedagogical content knowledge: Appropriate application of the contrast between listening to and listening for.”
Buttressing his point, Sanni gave the example of child who was asked to read numerals 11 to 20 and read well from 13 to 19 and when he got to 20 pronounced the figure as Ten-teen.
“The learner recognised and followed a “logic” that he derived from the pattern of naming fourteen to nineteen. The teacher was listening for a particular answer (the correct names) which the learner did not provide,” he said.
Sanni added that the fear of students for Mathematics is global and that a survey carried out in 2007 in both Nigeria and South Africa showed about 60 percent of students saying that would not have had anything to do with the subject if it was not compulsory.
The reasons they gave ranged from difficulty in understanding Mathematical concepts, persistent failure, boredom in Mathematics class and even fear of the teacher.
He suggested that Mathematics teachers should be conceptually focused on their teaching instead of being procedurally focused.
In dealing with students’ contributions, he said, “Students learn best in classes where teachers have strong content knowledge and strong pedagogical context knowledge. Teacher with strong content knowledge but weak pedagogical content knowledge almost always tends to display their knowledge rather than focusing on students learning.”
He also called for a review of teacher training, saying being satisfied with the status quo would not be well for the system.
The Vice Chancellor, Prof. Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello, commended the inaugural lecturer for his well researched presentation.