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What is mathematics education? Which are the basic problems in math education? What qualifications should teachers have? These and other questions were discussed during the 2nd Republican Conference on Mathematics Education which kicked off at Armenian State Pedagogical University on October 23.
Srbuhi Gevorgyan, ASPU Vice-Rector for Educational and Scientific Affairs, stressed the importance of the conference, noting that the role of mathematics education has been reconsidered in humanistic education.
Vanik Zakaryan, an academician of the National Academy of the Sciences, spoke about the role and mission of the Pedagogical University, noting that the University has changed almost beyond recognition] its ‘face and features.’
The academician is convinced that the University will continue to maintain its leading position, laying the main emphasis on pedagogical and psychological methods of teaching and fully understanding that it shoulders the responsibility for positive and negative phenomena at school.
“Mathematics teaching is as old as mathematics education. Its teaching has never been called into question,” said Manuk Mkrtchyan, Deputy Minister of Education and Science. In his report focusing on the role and importance of mathematics in general education, he called on specialists of the sector to select subjects considering the volume and duration of the course, at the same time deciding whether knowledge or methods should become math education unit.
The deputy minister also referred to the process of organizing mathematics education; while Mr Mkrtchyan considered group work impossible and ineffective [in view of mathematics teaching] he emphasized the importance of an individual approach as an effective means of teaching.
Professor Hamlet Mikaelyan, Head of the Department of Mathematics teaching Methods, the organizer of the conference, dwelt on the foundations of mathematics education.
Speaking about the foundations of mathematics education at the Pedagogical University the professor underlined scientific and value formation, psychological and methodological fundamentals which serve as the basis for methods and practice.
Hamlet Mikaelyan suggested changing the attitude and determining what type of teachers we need today. “A math teacher usually turns the lesson into a teaching process: it is very important that before entering the classroom he/she think not only about good teaching, but also about shaping pupils’ mental world through mathematics,” he said.
Hamlet Mikaelyan’s speech was followed by more reports, in which specialists focused on technology-based interdisciplinary planning in the process of mathematics teaching, formation of national values, components of effective mathematics lessons and other issues.
