Improving students understanding : a priority in mathematics education

Abstract

The Maltese National Minimum curriculum (NMC)(primary level) speaks of “the satisfaction to be derived from the achievement of success in learning" and lays down that “tests and examinations... ought to be used by the teachers as tests of understanding and by the children as an opportunity to show their talents”(Education Department, 1990, pp. V-VI), while the secondary level NMC sets as one of the aims of secondary education “the training of the young mind in the pursuit of knowledge and reason”(Department of Information, 1990, p. 587). Ironically, the NMC's recommendations are expected, rather naively, to function within the existing educational structures characterised as they are by examinations with selectivity in mind". In this article I contend that even though “understanding” may have become today a fashionable educational term, what actually goes on in class is not as rosy as some would like us to believe. Moreover, I suggest that the prevailing present mentality of equating educational success with examinations pass rates should gradually subside In favour of greater emphasis on the processes within.