Maths and Me

My name is Wangdrak Dorji and my past mathematics experience was in BCSEA which has most of its roots from our neighbour India. In this Indian based mathematic curriculum there was little opportunity provided for learners to construct their own knowledge by being actively involved in the teaching and learning process. Hence most of the time, the teaching and learning of mathematics tended to be procedural and resulted in instrumental understanding in which students learnt rules but lacked a deep conceptual or relational understanding.

Some of the feelings I associate with mathematics is that it is a class that would always be interesting. After the teacher drops by and gives a particular lesson, after having learned that lesson you feel another level of excitement to complete other questions. But this is relatively because true only if the such problem solving skills are acquired, whereby if they are not acquired it can be frustrating.

On starting this course I do feel nervous because I have forgotten some key contents of math because I haven’t been exposed to math in the past 5 months. I do hope that through daily homework and continuous practice I can fill in the gaps.

In the continuum I would like to put myself somewhere in the middle where I do the things on my own after someone has explained me on that particular topic. Ultimately it  involves revision of the previous topics when it comes down to a final test of what I have learned.

When I get stuck on a particular question, what I usually do is brainstorm a whole lot of different ways to tackle the problem. If I just can’t find the answer I give up and look into revisiting older accounts of the topics in the notes I have maintained. If it still doesn’t work out, I will ask the mentor to solve the problem.

I think my biggest strength in learning maths was my persistence. I keep on giving it my fullest even though I have seen the worst errors in my ways. The biggest area of focus for my mathematics in the first few weeks of Grade 11 would be being a critical thinker because although I do find methods to solve questions later on I realise that there was a more quicker efficient route towards that answer. I need to learn these skills not only to save time but also to solve a huge portion of problems at one go.

I am able to grasp contents but the problems arises when I do not regularly revisit old chapters and having to cram everything in the last minute.

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