Practical and visual aids in teaching basic mathematics principles

Abstract

This paper presents procedures and findings of an experiment on teaching basic mathematics concepts to Business undergraduate students by employing very practical aids. The main objectives of this experiment were to provide the students with skills and abilities to: 1. identify and formulate an appropriate model (linear or non-linear) by viewing the scatterdiagram for forecasting purposes; and 2. plot straight lines represented by the constraints and objective function of two-variable Linear Programming models for optimization purposes. The equipment used included basic scientific calculators, protractors and a flexi-curve. This experiment was based on the idea of guiding the students towards finding the answers instead of simply giving them the information. It also placed an emphasis on the visual aspects of teaching and learning methods. The effectiveness of the method was tested by identifying and measuring students' performance and learning preferences; and making comparisons between students from different mathematical backgrounds. The findings of this study suggest that students, regardless of their background in mathematics, have a preference for visual methods of learning mathematical concepts. It was also demonstrated that most students who participated in the study, enjoyed learning mathematics and believed that they would benefit from it in their future studies and career.