Meeting the Challenges of Math Education
BACKGROUND Mathematics is one subject that pervades life at any age, in any circumstance. Thus, its value goes beyond the classroom and the school. Mathematics as a school subject, therefore, must be learned comprehensively and with much depth. The twin goals of mathematics in the basic education levels are Critical Thinking and Problem Solving. Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing and/or evaluating information gathered from or generated by observation, experience, reflection, reasoning or communication as a guide to belief and action (Scriven and Paul, 1987). On the other hand, problem solving is finding a way around a difficulty, around an obstacle and finding a solution to a problem that is unknown (Polya, 1962). These two goals are to be achieved with an organized and rigorous curriculum content, a well – defined set of high-level skills and processes, desirable values and attitudes and appropriate tools, recognizing as well the different contexts of Filipino learners. There are five content areas in the curriculum, as adopted from the framework prepared by Philippine Council of Mathematics Teacher Educators (MATHTED) and Science Education Institute (SEI) (2010): Numbers and Number Sense, Measurement, Geometry, Patterns and Algebra and Probability and Statistics. The specific skills and processes to be developed are : Knowing and Understanding; Estimating, Computing and Solving; Visualizing and Modeling; Representing and Communicating; Conjecturing, Reasoning, Proving and Decision-Making; and Applying and Connecting. The following values and attitudes are to be honed as well: Accuracy, Creativity, Objectivity, Perseverance and Productivity. We recognize that the use of appropriate tools is needed in teaching mathematics. These include manipulative objects, measuring devices, calculators and computers, Smartphones, tablet PCs and the Internet.