Recently, I had the opportunity to visit several primary schools to conduct math lessons and assessments. One of the tasks involved senior primary students solving as many simple arithmetic questions as possible within a set time limit. While most completed a fair amount of questions, there were a handful of students who finished very few questions, even though they were clearly capable of doing more based on their abilities and performance at school. When I asked them why, imagine my shock when they responded: “Well, it doesn’t count towards my grade so there is no point doing it”. Even more concerning, in the post lesson survey, more than half agreed with the statement: “I do not like learning mathematics.” and “Mathematics is not useful in life”.
As someone who has always appreciated mathematics and science, this was disheartening to hear. I have always believed that it is fascinating that using mathematics and scientific thinking, we can discover and explain intricate mysteries of the world and the universe bound by elegant laws. It simply shows that the complexity of everything is actually interconnected and not pure chaos. It is only through many dedicated decades of study and innovation by scholars that we are able to achieve groundbreaking advances in technology such as electricity, internet, automation and so on, and transform our lives for the better. Additionally, basic mathematics and logical thinking are useful in real life situations, including calculating finances, analyzing data and coming up with solutions to complex problems. So it was surprising to see math motivation being so low in primary schools. This lack of motivation could further snowball into secondary school. According to Galton, Hargreaves & Pell (2003), student’s attitudes towards mathematics in particular have been found to be more negative when transitioning from primary school to secondary school. Despite these negative views, Hong Kong achieved excellent results in PISA mathematics, scoring 540 points in 2022 compared to an average of 472 points in OECD countries, ranking 4th internationally.
In the past few years, the Education Bureau emphasized the term “Life-Wide Learning”, which refers to “student learning in real contexts and authentic settings to achieve targets that are more difficult to attain through classroom learning”. This concept aligns with “Lifelong Learning”, another key objective of the curriculum. Although these are significant attitudes in life, one could argue that the teaching methodology and activities for mathematics are outdated and inadequate in modern pedagogy, resulting in students learning mathematics for the sake of good grades, rather than understanding its value and beauty.
Rather than traditional conventions, alternative teaching methods might be viable for mathematics education. One promising method is blended learning, where students study at home using online resources and use classroom time for discussion, collaboration, and consolidation. Thanks to the internet, teaching materials are more accessible than ever. Teachers can create their own videos or find existing ones for students to learn at their own pace at home. In the classroom, instead of directly teaching new concepts, teachers can focus on reinforcing and expanding on what students have already learned. This way, students have time to digest concepts beforehand, and in the classroom, students will consolidate their knowledge under the teacher’s guidance (Borba et al., 2016).
All things considered, perhaps it is time to rethink how we teach mathematics and change the way students think about math. It is hoped that more students can understand the beauty of mathematics, thereby unlocking a deeper perspective for the world through appreciating the importance of mathematics.
References
Borba, M. C., Askar, P., Engelbrecht, J., Gadanidis, G., Llinares, S., & Aguilar, M. S. (2016). Blended learning, e-learning and mobile learning in mathematics education. ZDM, 48, 589-610.
Galton, M., Hargreaves, L., & Pell, T. (2003). Progress in the middle years of schooling: Continuities and discontinuities at transfer. Education 3-13, 31(2), 9-18.
By Victor Leung, HKU BSc&BEd Year 2 Student
Posted on 14 Mar 2025
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