Friday, October 21, 2011
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Practice make Perfect!
A few days ago, I was sharing the method of solving maxima and minima problems with my students. I discovered that they are very good at following a fixed method of solving. I was relating this to the instruction following environment that the current Z-generation is being brought up with. They are bombarded constantly with a plethora of instruction followings in facebooking, gaming etc.
The application problem is something that is a challenge for most. However, some of them could solve by looking at similar pattern. There are a handful who could think through the problem and come out with innovative solutions, too!
Interestingly, the students that solve more problem are progressing despite the difficulty of the problem. The fast learner that solve less problems are at equal with the those average learner that solve a lot of problem. Perhaps, practice make perfect is true for every skill, mathematics is just another skill!
On the other hand I found another group of students who has no confidence at all in solving problem. These tend to refer to solutions of others and be a copycat. They are found to be hardly progressing in they learning.
I strongly encourage these group of students to try solving problem on their own without relying on solutions of others. Hopefully that will help them to progress better....
I have heard of retirees that stop active thinking or working developed Alzheimer and soon afterward depart their earthly life.On the contrary I knew quite a few uncles and aunties who keep themselves involved in various organisations and voluntary work maintain their mental alertness and stay healthy.
It seems to me that, relating these two cases of students and retirees,the more we use our skills, be it mental or otherwise the better we are at it. Moreover, not using the skills acquired will fasten the pace of aging! Truly the adage of practice make perfect has a lot of sense!
The application problem is something that is a challenge for most. However, some of them could solve by looking at similar pattern. There are a handful who could think through the problem and come out with innovative solutions, too!
Interestingly, the students that solve more problem are progressing despite the difficulty of the problem. The fast learner that solve less problems are at equal with the those average learner that solve a lot of problem. Perhaps, practice make perfect is true for every skill, mathematics is just another skill!
On the other hand I found another group of students who has no confidence at all in solving problem. These tend to refer to solutions of others and be a copycat. They are found to be hardly progressing in they learning.
I strongly encourage these group of students to try solving problem on their own without relying on solutions of others. Hopefully that will help them to progress better....
I have heard of retirees that stop active thinking or working developed Alzheimer and soon afterward depart their earthly life.On the contrary I knew quite a few uncles and aunties who keep themselves involved in various organisations and voluntary work maintain their mental alertness and stay healthy.
It seems to me that, relating these two cases of students and retirees,the more we use our skills, be it mental or otherwise the better we are at it. Moreover, not using the skills acquired will fasten the pace of aging! Truly the adage of practice make perfect has a lot of sense!
Value and Purpose
Once I heard a story about what is like in afterlife. Everyone is given a pair of long chopsticks upon entering the netherworld. There are endless flowing of food for everyone everywhere. However, the chopsticks are rather too long to be practical. And, he food could only be picked with the chopsticks alone.
All the souls are welcome into this great banquet hall. No sooner than entering, the souls are somehow divided into two groups. One group is happily feeding each other with the long chopsticks, while another trying in vain for eternity to feed themselves!
That differentiates Heaven and Hell; everyone is invited for Heaven, but some turn it into Hell!
We are human that live in community, serving each other is the key to live happily! Somehow, this important value is getting diluted more and more. It is implied in various ways that the overemphasis is given to self rather than the contrary.
I hope educators are getting this important value across to our young minds that will build the future!
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