The Major Reason for not succeeding in Maths
Investigation and research has pinpointed the MAJOR reasons kids don’t succeed with Maths as being the inability to conceptually understand the language of Maths as well as the value of the subject to them personally.
Doing extensive surveys on learners we found that almost all of them consider Maths to be just a set of numbers and very few of them pay any attention to Maths terminology and the importance of it in understanding Maths.
We also found that the concept of Maths as a language is also new to some teachers, yet it is one of the most important strategies in education – understanding of terminology.
In other words, if a learner does not understand what ‘fraction’ is he or she will have great difficulties in applying it and doing exercises with different fractions and when the exam comes this learner fails.
Maths is a language. It has its own vocabulary – Maths terminology. Like any other language, i.e. Russian, Spanish, French, Chinese, if you know the vocabulary of that language you can speak it and you can apply it in life. If you don’t know then you are pretty much useless at it.
It is quite easy to see using an example.
Let me ask you something in a foreign language: “Dai mne etu knigu”
Would you understand me? Would you do what I say? Would you apply it? I doubt it.
And if I constantly repeat to you “Dai mne etu knigu” “Dai mne etu knigu” “Dai mne etu knigu” “Dai mne etu knigu” I think you would get quite irritated with me. Wouldn’t you?
Now I will help you out and define each of the words.
- First of all I will let you know that the language I was using was Russian.
- Secondly I will define each word for you.
The first word (Dai) means ‘give’, the second word (mne) means ‘to me’, the third word (etu) means ‘this’ and the fourth word (knigu) means ‘book’.
Now you can understand what was said to you – “Give me this book”. You can then give me the book I am asking you for.
This is the POWER OF WORDS.
Here is some more visuals for you to see how it works with kids:
Why My Maths Buddy?
My Maths Buddy is a unique dictionary that was developed specifically as a resource for teachers and learners from Grade 3 to Grade 12 that assists with the acquisition of Maths. It has to date, proven to be highly effective in assisting Learners increase their results almost immediately and hence proven to be a resource for revitalizing and lifting the standards of Mathematics.
Using My Maths Buddy learners keep increasing their Maths vocabulary and thus start doing better at Maths and succeed at exams.
The dictionary is very user friendly and written in easy English language (taking into account that English is a second language for many learners) at the same time the words researched have comprehensive definitions with lots of real life examples and pictures that help learners to fully understand the terms.
My Maths Buddy is available in English and Afrikaans.
To get a tour of this dictionary please click here.
How the Project works?
We do not believe in just giving out books at schools or directly to Learners.
We believe in providing the My Maths Buddy book to Learners together with a workshop in which they are given valuable information and practical application of and with the book so as to enhance their understanding of Maths, the role of Maths and how to clear up words and terms as well as the importance of clearing up words and terms not conceptually understood.
In this way we know we make impact. Our results show that the Learners, once through the workshops, are better equipped to improve their Maths results through better understanding and application.
When working together with schools, organisations or communities, it is therefore essential that at the onset of the use of My Maths Buddy, we have the Learners receive their books at workshops.
Workshops are normally 1,5 – 2 hours.
It is essential that the teachers also get through the workshop so they too learn how to use My Maths Buddy in order to help their learners to succeed with Maths. Usually teachers get amazing results in terms of their confidence and attitude to teaching Maths.
Teacher Workshops are 1,5 – 2 hours. In these workshops we also concentrate on showing the teachers how to teach the Learners how to use the book effectively.
Workshops can be done in formal school environments or in community centers. Attendees can either be from a school itself or from the community.
Performance Monitoring is done prior to each workshop and after each workshop to determine effectiveness. In formal school partnerships, there is a further monitoring action done 6-8 weeks after the workshop before a report is completed which is produced for the donor.
We also provide full day seminars to educators on the subject of Maths where we go over topics like Maths is a language, value of Maths, Maths in relation to the country’s economic growth, methods of helping learners excel in Maths and so on. The seminars create a great impact on teachers’ attitude towards teaching Maths and their ability to help their learners.
Project Objectives
Learners gaining –
An affinity for Maths,
A deeper understanding of the role of Maths in their lives,
Teachers gain –
Greater skills to obtain better results from learners
Our economy gains more learners improving their mathematics results and thus creating a greater potential for uplifting the economy.
Our purpose is to bring the mathematics standards in South Africa up from the bottom of the list to a position we can be proud of. We refuse to settle for mediocre!
Our final objective is that all learners in South Africa get the dictionary and learn how to use it so that they can succeed in Maths!
Support the My Maths Buddy One Book One Learner Project today!
Better Maths results = a better economy = a better life for all! Join our project today!
