By Joshua Ibeazor
This is a popular question among most Nigerian students who do not understand the vital role Mathematics play in their career, future and everyday life. This also holds true for some adults who feel that mathematics is of no relevance to them.
Peoples’ conceptions of Mathematics include how they perceive the role of mathematics in their lives and society. In other words, why do we care about mathematics, why do we study Math? Some belief that Mathematics will be useful in the future. Some don’t know how Mathematics will be relevant in their future careers. Some belief that Mathematics is useful but not important.
For most people Mathematics is a collection of disconnected procedures, which belongs to the school, which value is not more than accessing higher education and career opportunities. Reasons why they ask about the usefulness of Mathematics could be because they needed to understand the social status of Mathematics or the utility of Mathematics. In other words, they are questioning how what they are learning is going to help now? Or it could be that they are not seeing the relationship of Mathematics to their career aspirations.
Mathematics is a core subject in Nigeria education and is a pivotal subject in other school subjects and career that touches every life of the beneficiaries of the educational system.
Why is mathematics so universal and important? The definition of mathematics gives a clue to the answer, that, Mathematics is a means of sharpening the individual mind, shaping his reasoning ability and developing his personality. Mathematics does not develop the individual alone but also the society.
Of more interest is the fact that, mathematics problem is the tool used not to only help students develop their thinking ability, but it also helps them to develop their basic skills of solving problems, especially a problem of daily life.
If the position acclaimed by mathematics is true and students do not know about it, it then means that there is a gap. This reveals a fact; that the students’ ideas about the usefulness of mathematics had not matured in substance. Studies show that if students understand at early stage of their lives that the mathematics they learn in classroom is largely connected to their lives, it will create enthusiasm and motivate them to learn Mathematics. There is therefore need to harness our Mathematics education at all levels to be response-able to support the teacher to be able to respond to the needs of the students and support the students to be able to respond to the needs of their lives.
To be able to respond to their needs, students should understand that just as in Mathematics, living is problem-laden; and to lead our lives involve a vision that can be achieved practically and soundly. This is where having a mathematical mind gives one an advantage.
Humans evolved to do mathematics. According to research, there are specific brain regions dedicated to numbers and calculations. This was useful to our ancestors to make fire from stones with their fellow cavemen, and estimate if they could cross the jungle before night falls. As centuries rolled by and our science becomes better, we started to use mathematics for more sophisticated purposes.
It is therefore pertinent, that students should know that everything is mathematics, but mathematics is not everything . According to Forbs Magazine, Mathematics empowers logical reasoning and logical reasoning empowers smart decisions. In life, those who make the smartest decisions win.
Therefore it is beneficial to the student to imbibe a Mathematical mind-set. Embodying a mathematical mind-set is useful in so many ways. One of such is that it equips the individual with the ability to have better insights in any matter. In the words of William Paul Thurston, Mathematics is not about numbers, equations, computations, or algorithms. It is about understanding.
But that is not all. The classroom mathematics helps to equip an individual with the ability to see the connections of relationships. Borrowing from Forbs article, Mathematics more than anything else is the study of relationships and connections. When one studies mathematics, what he/she studied are the connections that exist between many formulae. These formulas describe a physical world around us which is connected. It behooves the student as he/she studies mathematics, to see the world in terms of connections and relationships. Recognizing patterns and seeing loopholes between things, ideas, numbers and trends is the mindset that mathematics works in.
In conclusion, the study of Mathematics helps one in decision making. The definition of decision as applied in this case is that there is more than one way of action. Mathematics is problems –laden which often have many ways one can solve them. Thus when one studies Mathematics, it equips one with the ability of solving problems in various ways. And the most crucial component of the decision making process is picking the right option.
Written by Joshua Ibeazor, a PTA Mathematics teacher @ JSS Wuse Zone3. jibeazor@gmail.com