MATHEMATICS AS STORY TELLING (MAST): A FOCUS ON TEACHING AND LEARNING ALGEBRA
Madu, Cletus Ifeanyi
Abstract
Abstract Mathematics education does not seriously involve indigenous culture of Nigeria, thus students continue to be the most mathematically disadvantaged group especially at the secondary school level. Conventional wisdom with regard to Indigenous Mathematics education is to utilize practical and visual teaching methods, yet the power of Mathematics and the opportunities it brings for advancement lie in symbolic understanding. This paper dwells on a teaching approach Math As Story Telling (MAST) which can assist students understand algebra through creating and manipulating their own symbols for equations. It discusses effective indigenous Mathematics teaching. It describes the MAST approach and analyses its semiotic processes, discusses applications of the approach, and draws implications for indigenous Mathematics learning. The paper recommends that collaboration is required to meet up with language and other problems that the approach will normally encounter when adapted to a new cultural setting which includes political, mathematical content, community based and pedagogical. This collaboration, the author emphasises should be among teachers, researchers and community where the approach is to be adopted.