News

Dear Doug,
My name is Barbara Kerr and I have been working in Tanzania for the last 3 years. I have contacted you before. Mathematics is taught by rote and there is no understanding of basic concepts of Mathematics or Working Mathematically.

I have been using the Maths300 lessons in the schools and in teacher training sessions with great results. Some teachers here lack the basics in Mathematics so the sessions end up being learning sessions for the teachers.

I have also been working with the Academic Officers in my area for two years now analysing the government exams and identifying the problems and how these problems have come about. What I want to do now is show them the Working Mathematically process and how they can start using it.

Here they teach 'one way, one answer' and that one way is nearly always an equation. To be honest, 'always' an equation. My biggest problem is getting students and teachers to guess, try, estimate, talk in the class and ask questions. My focus is following the Working Mathematically process. As it says at the bottom of the Working Mathematically PDF, "If one way does not work than I start again another way." The problem is, here there is no other way. Just getting students and teachers to understand exactly what a question is asking is a huge job.

Last year we were asked by the Tanzanian Maths Association to take part in Pi Day celebrations in Dar Es Salaam. I did the Area of a Circle activity using the corner square with about 200 secondary students. At the end many students came up and said thank you because they finally understood. Love those moments.

I did the 'First Principles Percent' lesson with teachers last year too and one of them said, Oh is that what percent is. I didn't know percent was out of 100. They had been taught the formula and that was it. Luckily the Swahili word for Percent is Asili mia-Asili, coming from 'mia' which is 100.

I have included some photos of the children doing Circumference of a Circle. The man is Mr Msuya the Ward Education Officer. He is very supportive and helps out in all our class work and seminars. The story with the circumference of a circle photos is an interesting one. Teachers said students were having trouble with this and I asked if I could help. I said I could get students estimating the circumference to within about 0.2 of he correct answer without them putting pen to paper. They laughed so hard they had tears. I insisted that if they gave me a class I would show them. We did the activity and by the end of the lesson the students could estimate to within 0.2 of the correct answer. I have done this in 6 schools and with the same result. No nasty calculations and students estimating.

It was a huge step for both teachers and students. Not to mention it did wonders for my credibility. The grey hair helps here too.

The small photo I have attached the Rectangle Fraction lesson with teachers. We do mini PD sessions each week in our schools to help build teaching strategies and teaching for understanding not just rote learning. Fractions of shapes is taught here but not fractions of numbers. This causes big problems. Each aspect of Mathematics is taught in isolation. It is a big job but I live in an amazing village 2000m up Mt Kilimanjaro and work with the nicest people. Regards Barbara Kerr

For more of Barbara's contributions to Mathematics Centre type her name into the search engine on the home page. You will also find the Maths300 link here.