Mathematical Thinking towards Efficient Approach to Problem Solving

Abstract

Mathematics is a discipline indispensable in man’s daily survival. It finds its place in almost all endeavors man engages in. However, it is a subject much feared by a number of students. Few if there are, who finds mathematics easy and pleasurable and these are the exceptional few endowed with the brain for figures, hence the need to put a great deal of emphasis on different activities and strategies for better understanding and learning. The confines of my study catered to developing thinking of learners to develop in them the efficiency towards problem solving situation. The salient features of this study focused on the difficulties surfaced at in learning Mathematics, the factors that deter in learning the subject, the learning enhancement activities, and the strategies implemented to make learning feasible and convenient. The findings reveal that the respondents find difficulty in the derivation and application of formulae- rules and principles to a problem under study, and weaknesses in understanding in the regrouping of numbers. Tracing out what factors are affective of these difficulties, student factor came out dominant. On the strategies that make students maximize their learning, dominant was on determining appropriate solutions and approaches. This is certainly the entry-point towards gainful learning. It is thus imperative for teachers to be cognizant of what incites learners to go into a more commitment to learning not only to the maximum but also to the optimum.