INNOVATIVE TEACHING STRATEGIES IN MATHEMATICS

By: JOCELYN G. TAMARES Maruhat national High School Gapan City Division MERCY LEGASPI Mayapyap National High School Cabanatuan City Division

 A teachers primary job is to uncover the important ideas in subjects, not cover a textbook. -Anonymous

Challenges in Teaching
Engaging the learners; Empowering the teachers; and Enabling research.

MEANINGFUL LEARNING: OUR GOAL FOR SCHOOLS

Target: To help students to learn how to recognize and solve problems, comprehend new phenomena, construct mental models of those phenomena, and given a new situation, set goals and regulate their own learning and use technologies to engage students in active, constructive, intentional, authentic, and cooperative learning.

Promoting Inquiry
Inquiry Question Openers
Why? What if not? What happens if? How many? In general,? What do we mean by? Is there a relationship? Under what conditions? Is it possible? Whats the largest/smallest? What are the properties of? What other? How did you know? Is it always true that? How can you? Is there a similarity between?

What is an inquiry-based classroom?

It is a classroom which allows a student to play the role of an experienced co-researcher rather than of someone with all the answers. Here, the teacher: gives enough hints and poses probing questions; offers encouragement for good thinking, not just for right answers. treat answers, right and wrong, as discussion topics until the class the research team - reaches a consensus.

An inquiry-based classroom demands flexibility in responding to students ideas. Here, the goal is for students to experience mathematics as a process of finding and connecting ideas so that justifying ideas and problem solving become more important than the actual solutions; the teacher spends time in planning and thinking of how students might address the problem under investigation; and the teacher leads students to know that the thinking and problem-solving skills they develop can serve them in all aspects of their lives.

Some Effective Mathematics Teaching Methods

CONCRETE METHODS Manipulatives

SEMI-CONCRETE METHODS Pictorial Representations ABSTRACT METHODS Numerical Representations, Pattern Recognition, Writing Proofs

Indicators of Effectiveness of a Teaching Strategy/Method

Students ability to perform the desired competencies; transfer learning and use whatever concepts and skills learned to solve a similar or related problem; accomplish tasks that require higher order thinking skills; and appreciate the application of the concept or principle to real-life situations.

Some Teaching Strategies/Techniques

Concept mapping Flow charting Minds on Hands on Problem-based learning Cooperative learning approach Constructivist teaching method Mathematical Investigation

CONCEPT MAPPING
A concept map is a diagram or network indicating interrelationships among concepts and representing conceptual frameworks within a specific domain of knowledge (Novak, 1990). Here, the nodes represent concepts, the lines linking the nodes represent relationships, and the labels on the lines represent the nature of the relationships.

 generates and communicates ideas which can aid collaborative projects (brainstorming, etc.); aids learning by explicitly integrating new and old knowledge; helps in assessing understanding or diagnosing misunderstanding; enhances the problem-solving phases of generating alternative solutions and options; encourages positive self-concept.
(Seaman, 1990; Gaines and Shaw, 1995;

Plotnick, 1997; Williams,1997

Sample Concept Map

FLOW CHARTING
an outline of the sequence of processes in diagram form

MINDS-ON HANDS-ON
Minds-on, focusing on the core concepts and critical thinking processes needed for students to create and re-create mathematical concepts and relationships in their own minds. Hands-on, experimenting first-hand with physical objects in the environment and having concrete experience before learning abstract mathematical concepts.

PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING
This is a curriculum delivery system that recognizes the need to develop problem solving skills. The teachers act as facilitators of learning. The students are given guidelines on how to approach the problem. (Here, students act as professionals and confront problems as they occur with fuzzy edges, insufficient information - to determine the best solution.)

Problem-based Learning
ENGAGEMENT
EXPLORATION

EXPLANATION ELABORATION

EVALUATION

You have decided to purchase a cell phone and are considering which company offers the most affordable plan for you. Talk-a-lot charges P199.90 per month and P15 per minute Motor mouth charges P399.90 per month and P5 per minute 1. Write an equation that represents each phone company. 2. Is there ever a time when both would charge the same amount? When? How much?

Sample Problem (Systems of Linear Equation)

 Think-Pair-Share- a strategy designed to provide students with food for thought on a given topic enabling them to formulate individual ideas and share these ideas with another student. Uses: Note check, vocabulary review, quiz review, concept review, lecture check, Management Ideas: Assign partners, change partners, give think time, monitor discussion, timed-pair-share, randomly select students

COOPERATIVE LEARNING

CONSTRUCTIVIST TEACHING METHOD

Orientation Students are given the opportunity to develop a sense of purpose and motivation for learning the topic. Elicitation Students are provided with questions or problems for them to think about. Their initial ideas about the concepts covered in the lesson are solicited as well as their answers to the given questions. Discussion This includes (a) clarification and exchange of ideas; (b) construction of new ideas; and (c) evaluation of new ideas.

Constructivist
Application Students are given the opportunity to use their developed ideas in a variety of situations. In cooperative groups, they solve, explain and justify the solution of practical and textbook exercises. Summary and Reflection Students are asked to summarize the principles learned and write their reflections on how they learned the concepts and principles and how the method helped them in dealing with mathematical activities.

MATHEMATICAL INVESTIGATIONS
It is defined as a collection of worthwhile problem-solving tasks that : has multidimensional content; is open-ended, permitting several acceptable solutions; is an exploration requiring a full period or several classes to complete; is centered on a theme or event; and is often embedded in a focus question.

In addition, a mathematical investigation involves a number of processes, which include : researching outside sources to gather information; collecting data through such means as surveying, observing, or measuring; collaborating, with each team member taking on specific jobs; and using multiple strategies for reaching solutions and conclusions.

Profitable Activities in Teaching Mathematics

1. Use of Music 2. Visualization 3. Games and Puzzles 4. Math Lab 5. Arts and Aesthetics 6. Journal Writing 7. Mathematics in Context: Story Mathematics 8. Mathematical Connections 9. Using News Items and Clippings 10. Research Reports and Projects 11. Integrating technology 12. Use of manipulatives

1. Use of Music
To make the students relaxed, entertained, and eager to learn, especially when they are tired of routine work in mathematics. This technique works very well as long as the volume remains low enough for the students not to compete against but loud enough to be heard and to eliminate squeaks and other little distractions.

2. Visualization
Provide projects and hands-on materials and draw three-dimensional figures from real models.

 Some manipulatives in the form of mathematical games and puzzles are tangrams, Rubiks cube and Soma cubes, and problems which can be solved through logical reasoning.

3. Games and Puzzles

useful in improving problem solving and visualization skills; promote high-level skills such as analysis and synthesis; reinforce concepts and skills; improve students attitude toward learning math; add variety to the instructional program.

4. Math Lab
offers opportunity for math to come alive and for students to get involved and see the positive relationship between mathematics and everyday life; provides opportunity for encouraging creativity and social skills development.

Sample Math Lab Activities

A. Assume that you have Php10,000 which you can spend for a party. 1. Using the ads of a certain restaurant, plan your expenses. 2. Draw up a budget that will include all party expenses.

B. Clip a recipe for cooking your favorite dish and make a new recipe for 20 servings.
Spaghetti Carbonara Recipe: Serving: 4 Ingredients: 2 Tbsp chopped Italian parsley 1 lb spaghetti Kosher salt and cup heavy cream freshly ground black 4 eggs pepper, to taste lb bacon, cut into cup freshly grated -inch dice pecorino-romano 1 tsp extra virgin cheese (parmesan olive oil may be substituted)

Preparation: Fill a large soup pot with cold water and add a handful or so of Kosher salt. Stir and taste; it should taste like seawater. Cover the pot and heat the water until it boils.
Add the diced bacon to a cold saut pan and cook slowly over a low heat for 10 to 15 minutes or until crisp. Remove bacon from pan and drain on paper towels.

 Drop the spaghetti into the boiling salted water and cook according to package instructions, about 6 to 9 minutes or until al dente, or tender but still firm to the bite. While the pasta cooks, combine the eggs, cheese, cream and olive oil in a bowl and beat with a whisk until completely mixed. Drain pasta, toss with the egg and cream mixture, then add the cooked bacon and chopped parsley. Serve right away, with additional grated cheese if desired.

C. Turn to the Computers for Sale section of the classified ads. 1. Figure out the average cost per computer in four different outlets. 2. Draw a bar graph which shows the average cost per computer in the four outlets.

D. Have everyone in the class select a stock and follow it up for a week. 1. Each student follows the progress of his chosen stock and draws a line graph depicting its behavior. 2. Ask students to describe the behavior of the said stock.

E. Turn to the sports page of any newspaper and find the standings of any professional sport. 1. Add up the total number of wins and losses for each division. 2. Which division appears to be the strongest? the weakest? 3. By how much do their average winnings differ?

F. Mathematical Magic 1. Ask a student volunteer to write down any three- digit number whose first and last digits differ by more than one. 2. Then form another three-digit number by reversing the digits of the first number (i.e., 235 becomes 532). 3. Subtract the smaller number from the larger number, reverse the digits of the answer, and add this to the result of subtraction. 4. What is the sum? Justify your answer.

5. Arts and Aesthetics

The use of art as teaching aid can lead students towards better understanding of, and appreciation for mathematics. Tessellations, modular art, and curve stitching may be done in the classroom.

6. Writing Math/Journal Writing

Give students the opportunity to create and communicate mathematics problems of their own. Write - an algorithm, a definition, a problem; - generalizing a concept/relationship; - reporting a project; - accomplishments, reactions

7. Mathematics in Context: Story Mathematics

Place a mathematical topic in the context of a brief story to further explain it and motivate students to carry out problemsolving activities.

Sample of Mathematics in Context

Suppose that a classical concert ticket costs twice as much as a rock concert ticket. Is it cheaper, more expensive, or equally expensive for you to take 100 friends to a rock concert or two friends, 25 times each, to a classical music concert?

8. Some Mathematical Connections

Geography -Which of the regions in the Philippines is the largest in land area? -Which is the smallest? -How many times greater is the largest? Social Science -Which region has the largest population? -What is the population density (number of persons per square mile)of a particular region? -What is the population density in persons per hectare of the region in which you live?

 Biology -What change in the area occurs in a leaf of a fastgrowing plant as the growing season advances? -What is the rate of the change based on a simple graph of area versus time? -How does the rate of change in the area compare with the rate of change in the length of the leaf? Physics If the distributed electric current through a metal strip of uniform but irregular cross section is one ampere, what is the current density per square centimeter across the cross section?

 Decimals can be computed from batting or shooting averages and percentage of pass completions for a favorite sports activity. Common fractions are found in recipes. Find a recipe serving six persons and have students convert the quantities so the recipe will serve 15 persons. Metric system can be introduced or reviewed by reading and interpreting articles, especially from foreign news services.

9. News Items that Provide Real Mathematical Experiences

 Consumer economics can be learned from advertisements. Automobile batteries are advertised at different prices with guarantees for different number of months. Students can figure the cost of each battery on a per month basis to determine the most economical purchase. Consider current legislative debates, such as those concerning truth-in-packaging bills, by attempting to determine actual value of the economy size of one product vs. the giant size produced by another company.

 Graphs are common in most newspapers, and students can draw their own from data they find in articles. Bar graphs may be constructed from sports statistics such as baskets scored by each of the baseball or basketball teams. Election results can be depicted through a circle graph in which sectors indicate the percentages of vote received by each candidate.

 Line or bar graphs can record daily temperatures of hours of daylight (from a certain date to another), height of annual rainfall or the rise and fall of tide in the locality, or the households monthly water and energy consumption.

10. Use of Research, Reports, and Projects

Encourage students to pursue individual areas of interest and open up new dimensions of study for them.
This provides teachers excellent opportunities to know their students better and work with them on an individual basis.

Sample of Use of Research, Reports and Projects

Finding the common fraction or decimal approximation of a given number to correct to the given number of decimal places The Pythagorean Theorem has over 300 proofs (see, for example, Loomis 1968). The intriguing secret order of the Pythagoreans may be of interest to some students.

The mathematics of the honeycomb was studied by Pappus, a fourth-century Alexandrian mathematician. No other shape of cell is as economical of space and materials as is the hexagonal structure of the honeycomb.
Mathematics and postage stamps will interest some students as a project. Mathematics in measurement, computation, cartography (mapmaking), and design is an interesting research topic.

 Gas Station Map mathematics which uses road maps can be a nice source of mathematical activities. Some of these are: 1. Tracing a highway across a region an counting the towns it passes through. 2. Measuring the distance between two cities shown on the map, then computing how far apart these cities are in kilometers. 3. Using the mileage chart on the map to find distances between cities and using yarn or string to find distances through the maps conversion scale. Why are these distances not the same?

Other Mathematical Activities

4. In a trip from Manila to Iloilo, how much less time does the airplane have to cover than a ferry boat? 5. Find the areas of some cities and compare results with figures found in official records.
Kite building can lead to the study of geometric shapes (such as Graham Bells famous tetrahedral kites), to methods of heights (such as using the hypsometer), and to studies of the physics of flight.

 Graphing pictures through point plotting is instructive and entertaining. Students find solution sets for equations and plot them by giving pictures of a variety of objects or pictures. On top of the lesson on trigonometry of triangles, students may be asked to investigate the trigonometry of squares. Probability and statistics provide a rich source of interesting, real-life problems. Initially, chance outcomes can be shown using coins, dice, a table of random digits or a deck of cards

11. Use technology

Using internet sources Blended e-learning Use powerpoint presentations

12.Use of Manipulatives
to represent mathematical concepts, numbers and operations Algebra tiles Geometric figures Other mathematical gadgets

Teaching Problem Solving

Provide opportunities for students to actively contribute to the formulation of the problem, to write the problems themselves, and to change conditions in the problems and to critique a given solution.

Problem Solving
Break it down into subordinate problems Eliminate Possibilities Draw a picture or diagram, or make a model Solve a simpler related problem

Guess, estimate, check and revise

Look for Patterns

Make a table, chart or organized list

Work backwards from where you want to end up

(Mathematics and Science Education Center)

Classification of Problems
1. Problems without numbers 2. Problem situation without questions 3. Problems with insufficient or extraneous data 4. Problems that can be solved by drawing a diagram 5. Problems whose reversals are also problems 6. Open-search Problems

1. Problems without numbers

1. A sporting goods store has some baseballs and some softballs on hand. A baseball and a softball are not worth the same amount of money. What is the total value of the baseballs and the softballs on hand? 2. Tanyas mother went to the store to buy cans of soup. How much money did she spend?

2. Problem situation without questions

Joy and Sally go to the store. Joy has Php580 and Sally has Php620. They want to buy a gift that costs Php920.

3. Problem with Insufficient or Extraneous Data

Two sides of a triangle have lengths 4cm and 6cm. Find the perimeter of the triangle.

4. Problems whose reversals are also problems

Examples: 1. a) 337 + 456 = ? b) 3_7 + _ _6 = 533 2. a) What are the prime factors of 90? b) List the 12 smallest numbers the prime factors of which are 2, 3, and 5.

3. a) Round off 5.77 to the nearest tenth. b) What numbers when rounded off to the nearest tenth give 5.8?
4. a) What is the surface area of a box with dimensions 2 cm x 6 cm x 10 cm? b) Design a box with a surface area of 128 sq cm.

5. Problems that can be solved by drawing a diagram

Activity: Ask the students to prepare a sketch that illustrates a given problem and solve the problem based on the figure. 1. John, Alex, and May live on the same road. John lives 10 km from Alex. May lives 2km from Alex. How far does John live from May? 2. Ninety-six students are to be placed in rows, with eight students in each row. How many rows will there be?

6. Open-search Problems
1. Find all primes that are one less than a fourth power. 2. Draw plane figures with equal areas. 3. Design a basketball court, given the size of the lot.

Conduct problem-solving activities

Activity: The students may be asked to collect problems: textbook problems, media problems, non-routine problems, puzzles, and strategy games.
Some of these strategy games are Tic- Tac-Toe and the Tower of Hanoi.

Talk about the practical applications of mathematics. Activity: Ask students to interpret graphs and charts, cause and effects of certain day to day happenings, estimate and evaluate responses.

Elements of a Thoughtful Learning Environment

A classroom layout that invites thinking, i.e. a seating arrangement where students face each other in groups or clusters, or around a hollow square, which makes possible student-to-student interchanges, provides opportunities for active student learning and thinking

Classroom interactions that involve information processing rather than information receiving and repeating students in posing problems, comparing, analyzing, formulating hypotheses, judging the worth of arguments, and in asking and answering questions. In a thinking classroom, students dissect, reflect on, and add to what they read, hear, see, or feel to give new meaning to it, rather than simply remember the meanings provided by authorities in the field.

The Emerging Role of the Mathematics Teacher

Creator of a thoughtful learning environment that promotes and support higher-order thinking and a classroom climate that nurtures thinking beyond the levels of recall and translation, as well as an environment in which more complex thinking can occur

Originator of precise, thoughtful language rather than vague terminology or generalizations Promoter of higher order thinking skills through questioning, structuring, responding and modeling Organizer of classroom study and courses around thoughtful questions
Makes innovative changes and focuses on something other than memorization of contents;

Realistic and relevant applications of the topic under consideration Encourages independent thinking through the use of divergent strategies in solving problems; Makes the teaching-learning process more credible, convincing, meaningful, and interesting.

Use of manipulatives to provide experiences in actual problem-solving situations and analyzing sensory data Have field trips since educational excursions can be used fruitfully to enrich instruction in mathematics

Life is good for only two things, discovering mathematics and teaching mathematics."

Simon Poisson

THANK YOU!