In the articles we explain our approach to both studying and teaching mathematics and present our views on the use of computer technologies in education
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How to choose a task-book? The problem of a "good" task-book stems from the fact that there exists no "dozen" universal math problems that would guarantee mastering the educational material. Each student needs to solve his own set of problems, depending on his level of knowledge and skills and personal features. For some people one example suffices to learn a piece of material, while others may need to solve twenty examples...
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Theory in training programs in mathematics Why math theory is so important? It may seem that an ability to apply just the result of a theorem to various tasks would suffice. However, for the proper studying of mathematics such approach is wrong...
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Level of substantiation in math training An ability to substantiate solutions is an important component of problem-solving skills. If the level of substantiation is low, a student is crammed to solve one particular type of problem, so that he remembers not the cause-and-effect mathematical relations, but a particular technique applied to one particular structure. As soon as the structure is slightly changed, such student cannot solve anymore...
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Methodical feedbacks - what for are they needed? One of the most difficult questions in math training is how to teach a student to solve on his own? Math theory can (and must) be simply learnt. Tasks, on the other hand, cannot be just learnt because their number is indefinite. A student should be taught "to think"...
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Special methodical exercises - what for are they required? The expert tutors know what typical students’ errors are and what causes them. This is, so to speak, a diagnosis. The therapy consists of special exercises described in this article...
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Who needs lexical functions in training programs in math, and why? Math is not the easiest subject in itself. When studying math is combined with the lack of language skill and with adaptation problems, this may crush down even a grown up man. The saying "who drowns is not a seaman", is a good saying when it applies to someone else...
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How can our training programs help a classroom teacher? Let us find out what functions of a tutor can be "delegated" to the computer. Consider the list:
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How can our training programs help a tutor? If you have some teaching experience, you certainly have found your own way of performance. You may think that you hardly need any training program. This is not quite so...
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Development of methodical materials It would be fine to develop such a universal task-book or tutorial, which could be used for a quick selection of any necessary tutorial materials...
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Why all programs of the complex EMTeachline are not integrated in one program? It may seem that some programs of the complex are "better" than the others. For example, EMMentor offers all functions of EMSolution plus many additional options and therefore EMMentor is "better". This conclusion is generally wrong. In the case that you use all functions of EMMentor, this program is better indeed. However, in the other cases - it is obviously worse...
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Future development of the complex EMTeachline This article presents a vision of "strategic" directions of development of our training complex...
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Why there is no "Solver" in the complex EMTeachline? The keyword here is "teach". The user does not know mathematics - we are here to teach him. As he does not know math, he hardly knows which example he actually needs to study. Even after he takes an example somewhere and introduces this example into computer, he still has to know which method to apply to solve this example. Such a "knowledgeable user" hardly exists.
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Why we support versions "Light"? Versions "Light" are not the demonstration versions. These are fully functional programs. The database of versions "Light" contains about 1000 math problems. This exceeds databases of many existing commercial programs.
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How to choose a program? The best way to choose a program is to try it. The free-of-charge versions "Light" serve this purpose. None of descriptions, summaries or expert opinions can supersede the direct dialogue with a program.
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Why the database of educational tasks in training programs must be large? All developers of training programs in math encounter the common problem, namely: a source of math problems. Here, we answer the following question: what the user gains or looses depending on how the developers approach the mentioned problem.
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Solving methods in training programs ...about relation between general and special solution methods in teaching mathematics. How the developers balance these methods, and how this echoes in the training programs...
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Organization of educational material in training programs What the user gains from the varied ways of organization of educational material.
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Criteria for assessing the teaching capabilities of a training program. Our view Any training program in math is a tool designed to build up specific knowledge and a suit of abilities and skills to solve math problems. Let us point at several quantitative and qualitative parameters, allowing evaluating the training potential of a program.
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