Indeep Thinking About Mathematics Education

Now I am studying at Yogyakarta State University and I take mathematics education program. Last Friday, my lecture, Mr. Marsigit told us about something important in studying mathematics education. He said that we are lucky because we are in mathematics education program. If we take mathematics education program, we are supposed to be mathematics teachers in the future. Of course, as a teacher, I will face some kids, called students. They will be younger than me and have less mathematics experience if it is compared to me. So I have to consider that their way to study mathematics is different to my way to study mathematics. Now, the question is what is the difference between university students and pupils in the way of studying mathematics?
Before we talk about that, we have to understand that younger student has different thought to older student, in this case university student. What is the difference? Younger students always think about real material that can be found easily in their daily life. But older students are able to think about something abstract that just can be found in their mind. Based on that fact, now we are able to answer “what is the difference between university students and pupils in the way of studying mathematics?”.
As we have talked before that older people can think abstractly, so we can say that mathematics for them is about ‘knowledge object’ that just can be found in their mind. University mathematics is something abstract, it does not need some example in the daily life, it is about some proof of theorem, postulate, etc. mathematics is something ideal. When we say about ‘line’, what is supposed in our mind is something that is perfectly thick, has unlimited length and really straight. We have to be able to differentiate, which one is ‘line’, ‘line picture’, and ‘line model’. But, it doesn’t happen in school mathematics. Since, for younger students mathematics is just model of think that can be found in their daily life. In school mathematics, we don’t have to talk about proof of theorem, postulate, etc. We just have to give the real problem and material or contextual thing that can be easily found in their life. For example, when we talk about cube, what they think must be the model of cube. So we need some model or visual aid to help us in teach mathematics to them.
Ebutt and Straker (1995) define school mathematics as followed:
1. Mathematics is a source of pattern and relationship.
So younger students in studying mathematics they will search some examples of problems, after that they will find the pattern of solution for those problems. And finally they can find the relationship between the problem and the right solution.
2. Mathematics is problem solving activity.
Mathematics is about problem. Teachers usually give some problems or exercise to their students and the students should answer it or find the solution of the problem.
3. Mathematics is investigation activity.
In studying mathematics, student have to make an analysis about all mathematics object.
4. Mathematics is a means of communication.
Studying mathematics is not just can understand the concept, but student have to be able to communicate it with other.
What is the characteristic of student learn mathematics?
1. Students active if they have good motivation and good apperception.
if students want to be success in learning mathematics, they have to have good preparation and also big motivation.
2. That student learn mathematics individually.
In learning mathematics, students cannot be replaced by another people for all reason. Studying mathematics is individual experience.
3. That student learn math with collaboration with others.
Although mathematics is an individual learning experience, but students have to be able to work together with another people, or in the other word, work in team to discuss and solve some mathematics problems.
4. That the student learn mathematics in context.
Student can learn mathematics easily when they can imagine and think about the use of it in their daily life.

Good Morning Sunshine!!

it's friday already. hmm,,the next few hour is weekend. what's wrong with weekend?? i always love saturday and sunday. what about monday? i like it too in some cases. if i have a big power and spirit to start the next week, i love monday. but if i don't have spirit and willingness, i don't like monday. my problem is, nowadays i don't like monday. i always feel tired. i think my schedule in this semester is not as friendly as my schedule in the previous semester. that's not good of course..so that, i need a strategy, dooor!!noh God, give me strength, please..^^
so now,,let start this friday with a full spirit and smile :D
good morning sunshine!!

my first English class meeting

Friday February 18th 2011 was my first English class meeting in this semester. I took 2 sks for it. Actually my class would be hold in the first period, but because my lecture had to go to another class I changed my schedule into the third period, so my friends and I had to wait for the class for several hours.
My English class was scheduled to be hold at 1 pm, but we had problem with the room. My friends and I are supposed to use room number 209, but that room had been used to hold a meeting so we had to move to another class. We walked around to find the class. Unfortunately we could not find it. So we decided to call our English lecture, Mr. Marsigit. Finally we could find the room. We took room number 107 as our English room.
First time I saw my English lecture, I was so curious. I asked to myself, why Mr. Marsigit use such of bandage in his neck?? Did he get an accident several days ago?? But, I decided not to ask about it. I walked to the room and tried to find a comfortable sit for me. Unfortunately, I got the sit in the first row. It’s not a big deal since Mr. Marsigit asked us to make a round around his chair. Haha, you know guys, I didn’t have to move my chair because I was in the first row. That was the luck of the first row student, hihi. Next, Mr. Marsigit started to introduce himself. He told us about him, his family, his job, and his bandage in his neck. He also told about his experiences. He was graduated from England University, wow. He was bored to go abroad because he went abroad almost every years, woow. He went to Japan once a year, wooow. Do you know guys, one of my big dream in this life is I want to study abroad. I went to Japan some years ago and I really want to get there again. It seems so great if I can study there and explore about its culture.
Mr. Marsigit said that if you went abroad you can have a bunch of new siblings from Indonesia although when we was in Indonesia we didn’t recognize each other. That’s true. From his story, I could conclude that, if we have dream and we tried hard to make it come true so we can really make it come true.