Principles and Strategies in Teaching Mathematics

Practical Matters

PRACTICAL MATTERS

@ Fine teaching is composed of many technical components.

@ When everything works properly, then the whole is considerably greater than
the sum of its parts.
@ However, if some of the crucial parts are rusty or, worse, non-functional, then
the whole will creak and drag and not do a good job of it.

Considerations of a Novice Math Teacher

I.Voice
! Must capture the class’s attention.
! Must fill the room.
! Your voice is one of your primary tools and you must use that tool in part to
control the environment in your classroom.
! The most important presence in the room is not the blackboard, nor the desk,
nor the text. It is you. You want the students’ attention focused on you.
! You must learn to use your voice and your eyes and your body and your
presence as a tool.
! You can gain the attention of a large group by lowering your voice. Or by raising
it. Or by pausing.
! One thing is certain: You will not gain the audience’s attention by rolling along
in an uninflected monotone.
! You take just a little time and contemplate your lecture/classroom style. A
lecture or class should be a controlled conversation between you and your
audience. Must grab and maintain the attention of the class.
! Your behavior in front of the group is a primary tool for keeping the lines of
communication open.

II. Eye Contact

! It is a device that you must consciously cultivate. The end result is worth it.
! The teacher who can establish eye contact is also the teacher who is
confident, who is well prepared, and who conducts a good class.

III. Blackboard Technique

! Make sure your blackboards are clean before you begin. Take extra time to
erase the old stuff thoroughly.
! Write neatly. Write either in very plain longhand or print. Be sure that your
handwriting is large enough. Be sure that it is dark enough. Endeavor to write
straight across the blackboard in a horizontal line.
! Proceed in a linear fashion. Don’t have a lot of insertions, arrows, and
diagonally written asides.
! Some people find it useful to divide the blackboard into boxes. This practice
makes it easier for the lecturer to organize what he/she is writing, and also
makes it much, much easier for the students in the audience to organize the
material in their minds and in their notes.
! Label your equations so that you can refer to them verbally. Draw sketches
neatly. Use horizontal and vertical lines to set off related bodies of material.
! If the classroom has sliding blackboards, think ahead about how to use them so
that the most (and most recent) material is visible at one time.
! If you are right-handed, consider writing first on the right-hand blackboard and
then working left.
! Try to think ahead. Material that needs to be kept—and not erased—should be
written (probably in a box) on a blackboard to the far left or far right where it is
out of the way but can be referred to easily.

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 Principles and Strategies in Teaching Mathematics
Practical Matters

! Do not stand in front of what you are writing. Either stretch out your arm and
write to the side or step aside frequently. Read aloud to the class as you write.

IV. Homework
! Do not make the homework assignment too long.
! Do not make the homework assignment too short.
! Check over the problems you assign to confirm that there are no notational or
obvious typographical errors.
! Be sure that the assignment touches on all of the most important topics.
! Be sure that the homework assignment drills the students on the material that
you want them to learn and the material that you will be testing them on.
! Generally speaking, the homework problems should resonate with the material
you present in class.
! Make sure that at least some of the homework problems are graded.
! Plan ahead. The exams that you give should be based only on material that the
students have seen in the classes and in the homework.

V. Office Hours

! Choose hours that are convenient for you or convenient for the students or both
for consultations.
! Set your office hours, and announce them, and explain to the students that you
can make appointments for those who cannot attend the regularly scheduled
hours.
! Promise students that you will be there during your office hour. And be there.
! Talk only issues and topics related to or about the subject.
! Be smart to disregard other issues and personal matters of students. It is
unethical to get involved.

VI. Subject Preparation

! Thirty minutes of preparation is enough for an experience teacher but a whole
day preparation is not enough for a new one.
! Strike a balance between knowing the material and being able to “talk things
through” with your audience.
! You must be sufficiently confident that you can field questions on the fly, can
modify your lecture (again on the fly) to suit circumstances, can tolerate a
diversion to address a point that has been raised.
! The ability to do these things well is largely a product of experience.
! It would be wise to debrief yourself after class. Ask yourself how it went. Were
you sufficiently well prepared? Did you handle questions well? Did you present
that difficult concept as clearly as you had hoped? Was there room for
improvement?
! It is a good idea to try to anticipate questions that students will ask. But you
cannot do this artificially, it comes with experience.
! An easy way to cut down on your preparation time for a class is to present
examples straight out of the book, but do not overdo it.
! Enough preparation will lead to self-confidence and ultimately to a successful
class.

VI. Lectures

! Is lecture type still applicable? The lecture doesn’t work very well because most
of us aren’t very good at it.
! Lectures have been used to good effect for more than 3000 years.

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 Principles and Strategies in Teaching Mathematics
Practical Matters

! It can have wit, erudition, and sparkle. It can arouse curiosity, inform, and
amuse.
! It is a powerful teaching device that has stood the test of time. The ability to
give a good lecture is a valuable art, and one that you should cultivate.
! You really have to work at making your lectures reach your students and be
successful in using it appropriately.

VII. Art of Questioning

! Ask only sensible questions.
! Repeat questions or rephrase as needed for understanding.
! Ask questions that stimulates curiosity.
! Use open – ended questions. Questions that generates higher order thinking
skills.
! Most students cannot answer the question, because it is constructed
incorrectly.
! Be sure to have answers for anticipated questions. Be prepared.

VIII. Time Management

! You must cover a certain amount of material in the allotted time—and at a
reasonable rate.
! When you give a course, you must cover a certain amount of material in one
semester or term.
! When you give an exam, it must be doable by an average student in the given
time slot.
! When you answer a question, the length of the answer should suit the occasion.
! Have some extra material prepared to fill up extra time.
! If you finish your lesson with five minutes to spare, you can use the spare five
minutes to summarize what you have covered that day, or to give the students
a “thought” problem to take home, or to just tell them to have a nice day.
! If the clock shows that just five minutes remain, and you have ten or fifteen
minutes of material left to present, then you will have to find a comfortable
place to quit.
! If you run out of time, do not keep lecturing past the end of the period.

IX. Applications
! Don’t forget to include the applications of every math topics you have.
! Students can appreciate more of math if they can apply it.

X. Respect and Values Integration

! Believe that you can be an excellent math teacher.
! An excellent math teacher is the ne who can really transfer his knowledge to his
students easily.
! Be sure to integrate desirable habits, attitude and behavior to your students.

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