| I take engineering applied mathematics tuition part time for students in Mumbai. Certain things i learned from the students (opinions of students) after discussing and inferring from their daily progress. 1. Maths is dry and we have to be in different plane of imagination to study it. 2. In lecture hall they are mostly pondering about how the end result has come into being.(instead of why it should come) 3. Look for tricks emphasis on remembering things/patterns. 4. When you think on how to solve a problem means solve the equation according to the pattern learned. It's like they have put some identifiers on the problems if they see something similar they will use the pattern. 5. The textbook is the ultimate authority if it says so don't ask why because -- "its printed there so it must work", trust issues are imminent. I drew these insights because they recurred during tests, discussions, question and answer sessions. Most of the time students would tell the problems if someone asks them. What i found difficult was to pin point the problems from the symptoms. Some of the faults are with the books and others with the teaching system in India. Students i found, are always eager to work hard if they feel they are appreciated over minuscule achievements, so can't really blame them for developing these conceptions. |