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Originally posted by sultan:
on a more personal note, i've always felt the learning of maths and science would be better facilitated using personae from history to teach the evolution of thinking in a story-telling fashion. [img]smile.gif[/img]
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An interesting suggestion! [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img] . When I was in high school, I did two maths subjects, in one the teacher showed us how the formulae were derived and where they came from. In the other we were given the formulae and showed how to use them. The difference in interest was palpable even with that small change in teaching style!
Unfortunately, I think the problem isn't necessarily the teachers, but the whole mentality of school and maths in particular. Students don't WANT to know background or context - they just want the formula and its application. I think one of the most frustrating questions for teachers is 'is this going to be on the exam'? Otherwise they're not interested! I was talking with my supervisor the other day (a university lecturer), and she was discussing how frustrating it is that a lot of promotional and salary is tied up in student evaluations at the end of semester. And the only way to get really good evaluations is totally spoonfeeding them.