Preparation of prospective mathematics teachers

¶ … education today, it is very important for a mathematics teacher to know about and understand how different student cognitive styles can effect how math is taught and learned. The main cognitive styles include: audio learning, visual learning, and kinetic learning. Although learning style may be simply defined as the way people come to understand and remember information, the literature is filled with more complex variations on this theme. Gardner (1995), for example, define the learning style as the "complex manner in which, and conditions under which, learners most efficiently and most effectively perceive, process, store, and recall what they are attempting to learn" (p. 20). Many math teachers understand the different learning styles by analyzing their own style of learning. This paper will discuss some advice for prospective mathematic teachers about how they might teach specific mathematic topics to accommodate students' different learning styles.

Different people may have different learning styles. Student populations have become more diverse, the ability to teach to the needs of different learners has become increasingly important. When teaching math, it is important that the teacher teach the math topics in such a way, that all learning styles are able to grip and understand the concept. This can be done by exploring, explaining and expanding the information being taught while using manipulatives.

When the teacher begins a new lesson, he/she should spend some exploring the concept first. This is done by beginning with a problem that the student already knows. To aid the visual learner, the teacher would write the problem on the board. To aid the audio learner, the teacher would explain the concept as he/she is writing the problem on the board. Through the use of manipulatives, the teacher is able to include the kinetic learner. The students work with the teacher to solve the problem, then they are asked to restate the problem using their own words. Exploring serves as a warm up, a review, and preparation to introduce a new concept. (Quine)

Next is the explanation. In this phase, the teacher explains the concept. As he/she explains the concept, he/she writes sample problems on the board and the students are writing and solving the problems on paper as the teacher explains and writes on the board. Once again, in this phase, the teacher is teaching towards all three different learning styles. (Quine)

Lastly, the teacher will expand the information. This is the phase where the students can work on the problem on their own. The teacher will want to include activities that involve all learning styles such as worksheets, games, and presentations.

Math teachers should always be consistent with the way they teach the materials. Math is hard for most students, so when they know what to expect from the teacher and the class, they can concentrate more on learning the materials and information. (Quine)