Mathematics is an important component of human reasoning and logic, and an integral part of attempts to understand the universe and ourselves. Mathematics offers an efficient way to develop mental discipline and facilitates logical thinking and mental rigor.
Mathematical literacy also plays a crucial role in understanding other school subjects’ material, such as science, social studies, and even music and art.
The curriculum contains all those events, interactions, and environments that, under the supervision of school administrators, the child receives throughout his educational career. The curriculum is thus the complete education of the child.
The curriculum discusses all dimensions of the pupils’ lives: the need and concern of the pupils’ world that should be educationally friendly to them, forms and ways in which their interest can be warmed up, the procedures and methods that enable them to learn effectively, the social effects of the individual and how they fit in with the community around.
Here are four reasons why writing is important in the math curriculum:
1. Writing in math reveals student misconceptions:
Students would be able to conduct an algorithm or choose a correct multiple-choice response, but do the mathematical ideas understand them? Writing exercises help teachers dig deeper into students’ thinking processes.
Consider the basic truth or false question: “Two non – parallel lines do not overlap.” The right response is readily obtained by the students. However, we get all sorts of additional details when we add the instruction “explain your answer in words.
2. Writing in math requires students to think deeply about the content:
For students and teachers alike, a perfect exercise is to compose a paragraph describing a mathematical term in the math curriculum. For example: Why does the path of the inequality sign reverse when multiplying an inequality by a negative number? Students are also eager to demonstrate that they “know” this fact.
However, several students draw a blank when asked to justify why it’s true. It takes a much higher level of thought to try to bring the meaning behind this principle into words, effectively or not than simply performing the process.
3. Writing in math offers insights into students’ interests and taps into their passions
Another assessment task placed the students in the role of becoming an officer for college admissions. They sought to decide whether using: the SAT, which grades students work on a ranked normal distribution which grades test results with virtually no “curve.”
By discussing their interactions with standardized exams, college applications, and equality, the students replied to this challenge; and they shocked us on both sides of the problem with their mature, rational arguments. We heard about their hopes and aspirations for post-high school and the roadblocks and victories they faced.
4. Writing, and communicating, about math is a skill used in everyday life
Most of us talk about math more in our day-to-day existence than we do the math. In a world without terms, the letter you wrote to challenge the phone bill; the sales pitch you made to your biggest customer; the baseball numbers you shared with your friend, math happens.
Students need to be able to talk and write about the math that they coherently experience in their lives. By including writing in our math curriculum, let’s help them improve this talent!
Conclusion
As a field of research, mathematics has a long and storied history, all over the world. One of the most popular sciences is mathematics. It has a wide variety of use in individuals’ day-to-day operations. Interestingly, it is relevant from a farmer to architecture to a management professional in all walks of life. It is, in short, omnipotent.
Aqib Ijaz is a digital marketing guru at BrandLume. He is adept in IT as well. He loves to write on different topics. In his free time, he likes to travel and explore different parts of the world. You can read more of his blogs at EOS.