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Jakarta Post

Expert calls for math teaching revamp

With math the subject most Indonesian students dislike the most in school, Indonesia should change its teaching methods to better engage students, an expert says

Tifa Asrianti (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Tue, November 23, 2010

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Expert calls for math teaching revamp

W

ith math the subject most Indonesian students dislike the most in school, Indonesia should change its teaching methods to better engage students, an expert says.

Iwan Pranoto, associate professor in the math and natural sciences department at the Bandung Institute of Technology, said Indonesian teachers were focusing more on memorizing and counting, which required less skill.

“The teaching system only focuses on results, not the process.

“We need to shift the paradigm of math teaching in order to develop students’ passion for the subject so that students know about analytical thinking and problem solving, and how to communicate that knowledge to their peers,” Iwan said.

Referring to the results of the 2003 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), Iwan said Indonesia had a high mathematics anxiety level.

PISA assesses the ability of students in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries, including Indonesia.

In 2006, the PISA study showed the average performance of Indonesian students in math was better than Brazil, but far worse than Thailand.

“A high mathematics anxiety level is not good because it means students feel a lot of pressure. As a result, they can’t develop to their full potential,” Iwan said.

Iwan, who was a member of the curriculum team for gifted students at the National Education Ministry, said he was currently part of a team that was creating a math standard for Southeast Asian countries.

“It was during the meeting with other Southeast Asian fellows that I realized that we don’t have a standard math teaching method.

The current teaching method still uses the same formula that the Dutch used here,” he said.

Iwan suggested the government look at examples from other countries like the United States, India and China, as those countries were similar in terms of population and education systems.

He said math teaching has seen several trends. The first — currently being practiced — involves interactive and more visual discussions. Students are assured that math is logical and therefore there is no need to memorize.

The second trend involves the use of technology like calculators, computers and videos. Students practiced problem solving, he said.

“Another trend is intrinsic motivation through challenging and supporting the students, with students learning responsibility.”

Yeap Ban Har, principal at the Singapore-based Marshal Cavendish Institute, shared Iwan’s feelings about math teaching.

Yeap said in Singapore math teaching allowed students to see patterns and relationships between numbers.

Yeap said math study also taught life skills, such as discovering how many ways there are to pay for a bottle of soda.

In Singapore, teachers frequently created learning centers at their schools where they could discuss the best way to help students understand the subject, he said.

Sometimes they invited experts from outside the school to give lectures, he added.

“We change the curriculum once every six years. The major change was in 1992, when we switched the teaching system to problem solving. Later changes have been more about refinement,” he said.

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