Orientations of School Mathematics in Malaysia

Abstract

A review of recent study in Malaysia (Pannjit, 1998) suggests that possible problems in secondary school mathematics may be due to the procedural paradigm orientation in the curriculum and the conventional style of teaching in the classroom which do not provide sufficient opportunities for students to develop conceptual understanding. The current notion of school mathematics is based almost exclusively on fonnal mathematical procedures and concepts that, of their nature, are very remote from the conceptual world of the children who are to leam them. Many students see little connection between what they study in the classroom to real life. Just having students memorize facts and algorithms is debilitating. "Leaming mathematics involves the construction of a network of meanings -relating one thing to another" (Wheatley, 1991). While students are memorizing facts, which could not possibly hold any meaning for them, they are not constructing relationships and pattems. In fact, they may 'stop thinking about mathematical relationship" altogether (Wheatley, 1991).