Abstract and difficult, dreary and esoteric, page after page
of symbols and equations - that's how lots of students in schools
and colleges across India will most likely describe their views
on mathematics. 'Mathphobia is fairly widespread, usually takes
root early in school and invariably influences career choices.
Well, as a recent initiative at St. Stephen's College, New Delhi,
is demonstrating, the key to treating 'Mathphobia' may lie in
taking time off from the curriculum to demystify the jargon
of mathematics, convey its excitement and highlight its unexpected
importances to life. A team of maths, physics and economics
teachers at St. Stephen's college has set up the ICICI Center
for Mathematical sciences to promote. The Centre will promote
study, appreciation and application of mathematics among students
as well as teachers.
"One goal is to enrich academic
life and to boost the career prospects of students and faculty,"
says Dr. Dinesh Singh, professor of mathematics at the University
of Delhi and director of the Center. "We're also trying
to stem the declining interest in mathematics, which is actually
a part of the broader trend of students losing interest in the
pure sciences ," he says. To and extent, the Centre may
already have achieved that goal. At least two final-year undergraduate
mathematics students who had secured admission to the prestigious
MBA programme of Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad,
turned the offers down to pursue careers in mathematics and
physics.
In an attempt to combine mathematical knowledge with what Singh
says is "a more holistic approach to the subject",
last week the Center kicked off a three-week long lecture and
discussion programme called 'A Life of Mathematics'. Three top
mathematicians from the US and Canada are visiting the college
to deliver a series of lectures and talk about current trends
in undergraduate mathematics education, the best ways to teach
the subject and the history and future of mathematics.
In addition to the participants from the host institution, St
Stephen's and from Delhi University, postgraduate students and
faculty from Banaras Hindu University, St Xavier's College,
Mumbai, IIT Mumbai and Sardar Patel University of Gujarat are
also attending the conference. Some of the talks covered hard-core
mathematics, while the panel discussions were wide-ranging and
flexible affairs, with the Indian teachers, their students,
and the visiting faculty sharing their respective experiences
on mathematics.
"Mathematics is a kind of miracle
that no one fully understands," said Professor Henry Helson
from the department of mathematics, University of California,
Berkeley, talking about the meaning of mathematics. "It
is based on abstract concepts that originate in the human mind,
but that can be used to describe the modern world, "said
Prof. Helson.
A major debate among the teachers is how best to handle students
fear of the subject .Professor Peter Fillemore from the department
of mathematics at the Dalhousie University in Canada addressed
in a special talk on teaching mathematics. "We're only
facilitators," said Prof. Fillemore. "Students need
to have a desire to learn mathematics, either for itself or
to do something else with it in the real world," he said
." Sometimes we have to get away from the curriculum and
speak about mathematics more generally -perhaps highlight applications
of mathematics that students are not aware of, show them that
mathematics is relevant to things that at first glance don't
really seem connected to it." Prof. fillemore believes
that it is around grade 6, equivalent to class 6th in India,
that students begin to dislike mathematics. "It's a crucial
time for students, a point at which they decide whether they're
going to stick with mathematics or not," he added . Indian
mathematicians agree that it's while in school that students
get turned off by mathematics.
"When students are
in class 6th, they have to make a transition from arithmetic
to algebra, which involves abstract concepts," explained
Dr. singh." Algebra involves the manipulation of symbols.
While some students can handle the manipulation of numbers in
arithmetic easily, the new manipulation of symbols becomes a
problems," he said. Most Indian schools do not recognise
that some students could take more time, perhaps another two
or three years, before they can appreciate the symbol manipulation
associated with their algebra lessons. "So mathematics
turns into something merely to help one score marks," said
Dr. Sanjeev Agrawal, from the department of mathematics at St
Stephen's College and a senior fellow at the ICICI Center for
Mathematical Sciences. "Unfortunately, the answers to problems
become all important, rather than the concepts or the logical
process that leads to those answers," he said . In an attempt
to expose students to the importance of mathematics the Center
has also been pursuing a project entitled 'Mathematics in the
Modern World', which is to be sponsored by the department of
science and technology. The project is designed to demonstrate
the applications of mathematics in Eveready affairs -from the
reproduction of images beamed via satellites to the acoustics
of Indian drums to the mathematical concepts that connect shoelaces
to DNA.
For instance, Dr. N.Raghunathan-of the department of economics,
St Stephen's College, and also the deputy director of the Centre-
and Dr. Sanjeev Grewal - also of the department of economics
- have worked jointly with students on a project to show how
mathematics can be used by bidders at an auction to devise special
bidding strategies. Special bidding strategies. Dr. Bikram Phookan
of the physics department, along with a student team, showed
how mathematics is useful in radio astronomy. St Stephen's College
authorities hope that the activities at the Centre, besides
offering its won students some challenging assignments or insights
into mathematics, would improve their career prospects and also
be emulated elsewhere. As Dr. Anil Wilson, St. Stephen's principal,
put it, " The task has begun well. Let's hope it acquires
an infectious nature and spreads far and wide."
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