Math is a scary word for some, however being a result of Malaysian education system and having working in the industry for quite some time have lead me to understand why is it so.
I remember when i was in school many years ago, I never liked math because it seemed just like a puzzle without a purpose. The exercises only yielded useless numbers.
But when Ive started to learn science that invoved mathematical calculations such as physics, I started to see the usefulness in math as a tool to solve science related problems. All the algebra, Pythagoras theorem, calculus finally made sense and seemed intuitive. Before then, they were just puzzles that led to nowhere.
The video above, a presentation by Dan Mayer sums up the problems pretty well. Having teaching maths for form 4 students for 1/2 a year have led me to the same conclusion, the education system have not changed over after 10 years I left school. Having flip-flopping on the language medium used is another issue(but that is a whole different problem alltogether)
Instead of telling the students to memorize formulas for example the constant π (Pi), why not the teachers explain how was the constant π derived, with everyday objects so that students can relate to:
e.g from the number of circumference of the wheel rolling over in the animation below:
On the broader sense, the Malaysian education system which is too exam oriented and obsession of parents wanting their children to get straight "A"s, in order to have an easy adult life, earn big money, have created a workforce that lack of innovation and creativity. This could led to lack of passion in what ever career that they decided to take up.
Imagine you are visiting a doctor who has no passion on what he does but end up being a doctor because his/her parents wanted too. Not a sight for sore eyes!
