Not liking math is a fairly common phenomenon among American students and is also a reality happening to Vietnamese students. So how to get students more interested in math? Here are a few suggestions from Microsoft Corporation Chairman – Bill Gates.
When Bill Gates was in 8th grade, a teacher asked him why he was so “lazy” in math class. Bill Gates answered frankly because “you can’t do anything interesting”. In fact, Bill Gates loves and is very good at math, but he also believes that this is “the least popular subject in America”.
In essence, Bill Gates believes that mathematics education does not keep up with world development. “The way algebra, geometry and calculus are taught has hardly changed – while the labor market is changing dramatically” – Bill Gates affirmed. Additionally, tools like calculators, phones, and AI chatbots make it increasingly difficult to explain to students what it means to perform long calculations or calculate the area of a trapezoid by hand. than.
To find the answer to the question “How to help students love math more?”, Bill Gates spent a day in 8th grade to learn more deeply about the current way of learning math, then he proposed 3 ways to help students overcome their dislike of math. Math: first, math needs to be adjusted to suit students’ interests, abilities and goals; Second, mathematics should not be an individual’s discovery subject but should prioritize group communication and problem solving; Third, there needs to be more lessons applied to practical problems, such as budgeting or “population growth estimates.”
He gave the example of a math lesson at Chula Vista High School (Southern California) – which is testing math teaching based on the above suggestion: in a lesson about measuring the volume of a pyramid, the teacher gave students boxes of popcorn. One is shaped like a pyramid and the other is shaped like a rectangular prism. The teacher asked the 8th grade students to discuss which type of movie they would buy at the theater to get the most benefit?
According to Bill Gates, the teacher provided his students with a real-life application that they might have encountered – and the motivation to learn the answer because, after all, everyone wants to get the most out of it. . your currency. According to Gates, this new approach to math appears to be working at Chula Vista: math proficiency rates have increased 18 percent over the past three years at the school, amid improving national math scores. significant regression in recent years. Gates also asserted that math s𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁s are a “strong indicator” of future success.
