Teaching and learning of mathematics had been a
subject of prime importance from earliest civilization to the modern times and
it is a world-wide phenomenon as far back as 1890. According to Fakuade (1977)
there had been great deal of concern regarding the way mathematics was taught
to children throughout the civilized world. In England, Dr. J.J. Sylvester, one
of the greatest mathematicians of his time, was very bitter about the way
Euclidean Geometry was taught and would want to see geometry scrapped from
mathematics curriculum so also was Mr. John Perry’s concern over the way
applied mathematics was taught in close relationship to physics and recommended
that more concrete examples should be used in teaching mathematics so that
children can discover many facts through experimentation rather than through
deduction and that more emphasis should be given to graphic methods.
Similarly,
in United States, France and Germany, Messrs F.H. Moore, J. Tannery and Felix
Klein expressed the same point of view. In 1908, at the fourth International
Congress of Mathematicians that sat in Rome, an International Commission on the
teaching of Mathematics was appointed. This commission in particular,
recommended better preparation of mathematics teachers, what mathematicians
should be taught and in what way it should be taught. From 1955 upwards, the
reform in science curriculum had spread to mathematics consequently, there was the
School Mathematics Study Group (S.M.S.G.) base in Yale University, United
States of America and other projects while in United Kingdom, the two best
known were the School Mathematics Project (S.M.P.) and the Midland Mathematics
Experiment (M.M.E.). By 1960, there was the development of modern mathematics –
an attempt to modernize the context and teaching of mathematics.
The
subject mathematics is as old as man, it has argued that mankind, and even in
most primitive times has some Intelligent Quotient (IQ) to the extent of
recognizing when some objects are added or subtracted from small group. Before
the introduction of western education in Nigeria, different tribes and ethnic
groups had their unique system of counting and different ways of applying mathematical
concepts. The child is taught counting by the use of songs folklores, games
rhymes and the use of concrete objects, arm, finger, stones, stick, foot, pots,
cups, basins etc. were used for measurement so that quantities were effectively
compared without raucous (Obodo, 1997). Houses were constructed in various
shapes, circulars, rectangular, square, triangular etc. bearing in mind the
properties of these geometrical shapes.
The
teaching of mathematics in public schools, started about the middle of the 19th
century (Badmus, 1997). Except in the first few years of introduction,
students’ performance in mathematics has not been encouraging. In order to
improve students’ performance in mathematics there has been innovations in
mathematics curriculum, production of mathematics textbooks and other
mathematical instructions materials. The Mathematical Association of Nigeria
(MAN) has worked relentlessly to combat poor achievement in mathematics. Some
of the contributions of MAN can be seen in the production of mathematical
instructional materials, giving scholarship and award to students who have
distinguished themselves in mathematics, organizing conferences and workshops
for mathematics teachers in practice. The theme for the 1989 Annual National
Conference of MAN was “War against Poor Achievement in Mathematics”.
