MAED 314A – Summary to Interviews with Teacher and Students

In compliance with BCCT standards, “educators will engage in career-long learning”. Similarly, as teacher candidates and future educators we will continue to learn from our professors as well as from teacher and student interviews. In this interview, we have in our group of three collaboratively created a list of nine questions we most wanted to ask high school math teachers and students. From our interview with a math teacher and two high school students, we learned of the various resources and styles of teaching that we can make available to students to facilitate their learning in math.
Our first two interviewees were high school female students in grades nine and twelve respectively. We asked these students if they have troubles doing math, what would they do and why? The grade nine student said “if I have problem[s] doing math, I will go and ask my teacher” since she felt her teacher was approachable. The second student said that she will ask her friends because “discussions with her friends are good enough”. As teacher candidates then, we must recognize that our availability and approachability for students plays an important role in helping them learn math.
We also asked our two interviewees which area of math they find difficult and how their teachers can help them learn the topic better. One student has difficulties with volumes and angles and she prefers to learn “by sitting and taking notes” whereas the other student has difficulties with trigonometry and prefers to learn math “visually.” Thus, as teacher candidates we must keep in mind that each individual’s ways of learning is as different as the colors of the rainbow.
Our forth question was what can teachers do to motivate the students to learn math. In general, both students said it was hard to motivate them in a subject they disliked. However, they suggested that their teachers can try to interest them by making “the lesson a funner [group] activity.” Ironically, this ties into our last question, in which we asked the students how they would define a good math teacher. The grade nine student described “a good math teacher [as] someone [who] makes the class a little more fun and keeps everyone from NOT falling asleep.” On the other hand, the grade twelve student said a good math teacher “shoudn’t be monotone” and should make her “feel interested in what he/she teaches.”
In our interview with the high school math teacher however, we asked her what is the hardest thing to be a good math teacher? She replied “the most difficult part of being a math teacher is getting the students to get excited about Math.” What is interesting, however, is that she told us “some students say that they were once interested in Math” Therefore, as teachers it’s important that we try our best to teach math in fun and interesting ways.
This led into our second question inquiring any teaching advice(s) that our interviewee can give to teacher candidates. In her response, she told us we should avoid getting “disillusioned with teaching especially if the students are unmotivated.”In other words, it is important for teachers to overcome any teaching difficulties or harsh criticisms that she/he may encounter in the profession by approaching these problems optimistically and continuing to learn and develop professionally. For example, if a student is distracted, we shouldn’t take it personally and lose our initiative in teaching. Rather, we can refocus students back to the math lesson by “asking the distracted student to answer the question.” Distracted students also serve as a valuable sign in how well teachers are engaging their students in the class.
Thus, we asked the interviewee which is/are the most effective techniques she has used in teaching and why? She replied “I try to use real life examples…so that the seemingly abstract concepts can be more concrete.” This method however, “works only most of the time.” The reason for this as reflected by the interviewee is that she “wasn’t accommodating other learners especially those who have learning differences.” She also noted that “it was challenging to NOT teach the way she learned the concept.” Therefore, as teacher candidates, we should be flexible and adaptive in our teaching so that we are able to accommodate most if not all our students. Another effective teaching technique the interviewee had used all the time was “simplifying a complex concept using simpler examples.”
In conclusion, the interviews with the students helped us gain insight into their expectations from their math teachers and the methods that can be used to facilitate their learning in math. Generally, a great math teacher should be flexible and open-minded in his/her teaching to create a comforting classroom environment that involves plenty of excitement and fun group activities for students to engage in.