Not all students find mathematics an interesting subject to study. Why does that happen?
May be the reason is the very abstract approximation. If you are learning physics, you can play, try some interesting experiments and then test to analyse. If you learn math you have to abstract from the beginning. This is possibly the cause that the young´s motivation is to small to continue later on. But I´m not sure, because I´ve seen many times, that students change.
The students don't understand how to use the math in problem solving.
Here we have also an ambiguous question:
" Why do majority of students find mathematics an uninteresting subject to study?"
but
"Not all students find mathematics an interesting subject to study"
I think the second holds true.
IMHO, I think the problem for those cases is wrong professors (maybe in the past from elementary school onwards).
As for any other subject and topic, the professors are the communicators who need to teach this in an accessible, interesting and possibly enjoyable manner.
Actually, the problem starts right from the Elementary School Level. Why does that happen?
Again because teaching maths at elementary school is probably not vocational and just happened through the teaching career...
Whenever you want to transmit knowledge you need some kind of passion which motivates your pupils to interact with the matter...
otherwise they will just be passive elements just fighting to pass the exam and not to learn the matter
Well mathematics can become interesting more and more applications related to mathematics are involved in text books etc . The students find it boring when they solve long and tiring questions without any practical understanding of their mathematical skills .Applied mathematics is more interesting than the conventional mathematics .
Dear Karrar Hussain,
Your answer is quite interesting. According to you, applied mathematics is more interesting than 'simple mathematics'. In other words, pure mathematics is simple. Let me see what the others feel in this regard.
As Karrar says, "...without any practical UNDERSTANDING [emphasis mine] of their mathematical skills," student interest quickly wanes, and that understanding is not ever being taught, because mathematics is itself without its own understanding or foundation, brought into question by Hilbert, Russell and others and settled somewhat by fiat with set theory, model theory and proof theory, etc. -- all, however, variously subject to the same paradoxes, i.e., lack of understanding, confronted in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries through to Godel and Cohen, etc., where once again without any real solid foundation to stand on, interest in the foundation of mathematics was swept under the rug and children were asked to continue to accept things, concepts, constructs, theorems, equations, numbers, etc., in mathematics as true.
Does that mean these things are not true, are merely abstract human constructs, approximations, subjective 'tools,' irrelevant to reality? No, it means we must return to build mathematics onto a solid foundation or understanding rooted, connected tangibly/practically/physically in reality (under publication). With that understanding, student interest may be recaptured and all will be enthralled by mathematics as much if not more than by any other subject matter.
@Hemanta, You have said "... the problem starts right from the Elementary School Level"! It is very true! Yes, but as @Karrar mentioned, applied maths with its beauty is nice, much more interesting to students! Here are some opinions about the issue! I do not find math "dry, dull, boring, painfully difficult, and irrelevant"!
http://www.math.grinnell.edu/~miletijo/museum/intro.html
Dear Jacic,
Thank you for the attachment.
Applied mathematics is indeed nice. But Karrar, though indirectly, said also that pure mathematics is 'simple'. Do you think he is right?
Dear Professor Jacic,
In fact, more than just beautiful, I find certain mathematical results very poetic! In my RG profile, while writing about me, I have mentioned that in my eyes mathematics is the best kind of poetry if one can find the rhythm in it!
@Hemanta, probably students are impatient and want directly go to the 'food', ie the applications and not firstly study the needed mathematical theory. But then, after not achieving their goal, they are being forced to come back and study Mathematics...
Dear Demetris,
So ultimately, the students come back to where they should have been!
@Hemanta, regarding Your words "...in my eyes mathematics is the best kind of poetry...", I am free to propose a fine paper about "Poetry Inspired by Mathematics"! Enjoy it!
http://www.math.uconn.edu/~glaz/My_Articles/PoetryInspiredByMathematics.Bridges10.pdf
Dear Professor Low,
In fact, if someone says that he does not like physics for example, I can at least understand. But mathematics, unlike physics, is taught right from elementary level. Still some people do not like mathematics!
Dear Hemanta, I believe the reason is the missing emotion during the mathematical education. When teaching math the teachers must be interesting and touch the emotions, ambition and fun of their pupils, so these will start and love to learn maths.
PS: I´m astonished that you seem to be afraid of physics, don´t you? ;-)
Dear Hanno,
Not really, I am not afraid of physics. But I was afraid of chemistry when I was a student. As far as chemistry is concerned, I observed that even if you read very sincerely, it is easy to forget it soon. Physics is mathematical after all!
Dear Hemanta, just to continue our jokes. Chemistry is nothing else but applied physics, which uses mathematical methods. So I´m sure you love chemistry as well. ;-)
Dear Hanno,
Long back, during my Higher Secondary School Final Examinations, in the Practicals I got the shock of my life when the salt that I was given to determine was declared as Sodium Bromide by the External Examiner although I found it to be Sodium Nitrate! It was the 'ring test' that confused him! Somehow, the Internal Examiner intervened, and declared that I was right after all. I would have failed in the examination if the internal examiner would not have intervened.
So when I entered into my Bachelors Program thereafter, I went for Honours in Mathematics, with Physics and Statistics as subsidiary subjects of study. English Language was a compulsory subject anyway. I feared to go for Chemistry! It was a dangerous subject for me!
I still avoid people who are experts in Chemistry! It is a very tough subject. The more you read it, the more you forget it! Physics is much better than that! It is unforgettable!
Dear Hemanta, I think your final choice was ok, just regard your success. Better a good mathematician than a bad examiner mixing up all compounds.
My experience was a very bad physics teacher in school, so I chosed to leave the physics course. Later on I returned with a lot of energy and enthusiasm. Strange world!
Dear Hanno,
Incidentally, one would be interested in Physics, only if one is interested in Mathematics! The physicists are supposed to know mathematics, although the reverse is not true.
May be the reason is the very abstract approximation. If you are learning physics, you can play, try some interesting experiments and then test to analyse. If you learn math you have to abstract from the beginning. This is possibly the cause that the young´s motivation is to small to continue later on. But I´m not sure, because I´ve seen many times, that students change.
Dear Hanno,
Capacities to learn might change, but the original interest never changes. After completing B. Sc. (Honours) in Mathematics, I did my Masters in Statistics. But I felt, Statistics as a subject of study is narrower than Mathematics, and therefore I did my Doctorate in Mathematics. Since March, 1981, I had been working in a Department of Statistics till September, 2013, after which I have been shifted to an administrative job. But I have never taught Statistics in life; I was teaching mathematics only. My original interest was in mathematics, and that interest continued.
Dear Hemanta, I followed a reverse route: My first degree was in Physics, but after many years I started studying Mathematics for a professional use and I found that many of the physical laws were just an application of a well known theorem, for example Stokes! Since then I did a MPhil in Economics and now I work for PhD in computational and mathematical data analysis. I agree with you that Mathematics have a strange charm ...
Dear Demetris,
You have taken a very peculiar route, from Physics to Mathematics via Economics! Mathematics is not just charming, it is charm itself! It is not just beautiful, it is beauty itself!
All other science subjects are based on experiment. Whatever inference is published, it comes through experiment. The students get enough scope to match theory with practice. The outcome of scientific experiments is tangible through our sensory organs.
In contrary to that the syllabus of Mathematics in graduate level is pact with theoretical analysis. Here, we are to depend solely on the capacity of thinking. The scope of physical verification of many concepts, which comes in definition, is very limited.
Maximum of our students are getting degrees through a mechanical syllabus. Where, there is hardly any scope of creativity. But, the study of mathematics demands some sort of creativity to solve unknown problems.
In the market driven socio-economic condition, the study of mathematics does not ensures the earning of a bulk amount of money. This also another reason for the apathy to study mathematics.
@Sanjib,
your interesting vote alleges, that all other sciences base on experiments.
What about history, logic, literature...?
@Hanno
I think, I have not commented on the subjects like history, logic, literature etc. My comparison is restricted within science subjects only.
I am aware, that there is the scope of experiment in above subjects also. The USSR was constructed on the philosophy of communism, which was designed by the philosophers K. Marks and F. Engles. But these experiments are not involved with the choice of a student to select subject combination. Some educationalists consider mathematics as a subject of Arts group, because of its proximity with philosophy. Otherwise, it is hard to compare mathematics with other subjects of Arts group.
Finally I owe to your idea of comparing the scope of mathematics with history, logic, literature. Because the mathematics is itself a language. The study of mathematics is totally based on logic. And, the study of mathematics by the communities has changed the state of their society in the scale of the development. So, the application of mathematics may bring historical changes.
Hi, In my Ph D, I suggested a story-based learning context which presents geometry through a daily life story using dynamic geometry software. It aimed to enable students to improve their attitudes toward such topic and to make them feel the importance of geometry in daily life, to share in the process of experimenting and formulating geometric statements and conjectures. The content of the suggested approach was organized so that every activity was a prerequisite for entering the next one, either in the structure of geometric concepts or in the geometric story context.
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