The today's session
started at 10:00 as scheduled. The course was a first year course called
"Introduction to calculus". Mr. Timo Salin the instructor of the
course was very friendly and has welcomed us and introduced us to the class. He
started the class explaining to us the structure of the course and the grade
systematic. We asked him if he has some materials to show us, but he showed us
the textbook of the course only, which is shown in the next photo.
The first half the
lecture was a normal behavioral learning method. The professor explained the
lesson and the students were just taking notes. But the second part of the
lecture changed somehow to a social interacting method when the professor passed
out an exercise hand out to the students to solve. Then he solved it on the
board with some explanation, and after that moved to the next part of the
lecture. I think it was a good strategic technique to follow in order for
students to understand the lesson very well. In general the lesson itself is
one of the very basic math lessons, and in most universities and schools math
teachers use almost the same technique.
The professor started
explaining the today's lesson by relating it to a previous one. He used an A4
paper as a note in his hand while explaining the lesson. I think from my
experience that most of Mathematics professors use the same techniques,
especially when they explain what is called theory's proves. I discussed my
observed notice with my collogue Othman Amin since he is a math teacher. He told me that it is true in some cases but
not most of the time when there is a long example to explain.
In general I think the
session was given as expected a teacher explaining some math stuff and the
students take some notes with a little interaction from the students.
It is true that math classes around the world have much in common. E.g. my experience is that math teachers use less powerpoint than some other teachers, most of them seem to prefer "old fashioned blackboard". Have you any idea why it is so? (As an ex-math teacher I have my explanations, let's see if our reasoning is a match!)
ReplyDeleteDid the students solve problems individually or in pairs or teams?
I once attended a "computer aided math" -course in the University of Helsinki using Maple program. We had ten big problems to solve in a team of three people. As I recall it, we spent all summer trying to solve those problems. We could be stuck for days, and then one of us would get an idea and explain it to the others. That would then push the other one's thoughts to a new direction and help overcome another obstacle. Through team effort we managed to solve 9 out of 10 problems, and got a really good grade. If I had tried to do them by myself, I would never have succeeded, and neither would the other two. It was team effort and learning from each other that made as pass!
What I wanted to say with this example is that even in math there can be other effective ways to learn than the common "teacher shows an example, students try to apply the theory to another similar problem".
What I like about the class you describe, is the fact that the teacher actually let the students practice in his class. Too often theory and practical applications are divided too far apart (as we discussed in your comment box)!
Finally, if nothing surprised you, I'll skip that question and ask, was there anything applicable for you)
-Irmeli
Congratulations, I just heard the news! All the best for your family!
ReplyDelete- Irmeli