National Conference of MTA(I)

This theme will focus on innovative experiments that help understand and address a range of challenges in the classroom: anxiety in the classroom, cognitive and psychological impact of COVID-19, learner backlog across various stages, learning challenges and multilevel classroom. The aim is to share a range of investigations, case studies, attempts to address challenges and lessons learnt. These could include differentiated learning, remedial programs, community support initiatives, and resource material such as workbooks.

Key questions to be addressed in this theme:

• How can we break the cyclic connection of anxiety, poor learning and low scores?
• What are the innovations in addressing the mega challenge of multilevel classrooms along with learner gaps that have been carried forward?
• What are the ways of empowering teachers in identifying learning challenges, adopting a growth mindset, and immersive experiences in mathematics across various stages?
• Can technology play a role in bringing innovation to classroom practices?
• Does the arrival of AI in the education realm herald innovation or disrupt the role of a teacher in the classroom?

This theme will focus on the complex interaction between the language of instruction and the language of mathematics. Often learners in the mathematics classroom have to straddle between the medium of instruction, the language of their homes and the language of abstractions that mathematics demands. This theme aims to examine the tensions that arise when all these different `languages’ need to be deployed in the process of teaching and learning mathematics. Mathematics textbooks serve as a guide and goalpost for planning and these are often in either the regional language or English. In the classroom, teachers and students work with symbols in the textbook language but do mathematical reasoning in perhaps a different language. These issues are also not faced only at the school level but make their presence felt at the tertiary level too. Indeed, students whose medium of instruction for mathematics has been in a regional language face immense hurdles with English medium instruction at tertiary levels. The misconceptions and difficulties created by gaps add up over the years leading to anxiety, fear etc. The aim is to also share a range of methods to handle this. Key questions to be addressed in this theme:

• What are the key cognitive challenges that are experienced across various stages of school and tertiary, due to the differences in the medium of instruction, language spoken at home and the language of mathematics itself, and how can these be addressed?
• How can help learners understand mathematics when multiple languages are being used?
• Is it possible to show students that the language of mathematics can be both fun and can be played with like natural languages? Are there terminologies that teachers and students can come up with that help with this?
• Is it possible that mathematics can provide the precision lacking in natural languages or be used as a language to address ambiguity in natural languages?
• How can we bring the actual process of mathematics (such as generalising, classifying, abstracting, and understanding relationships)  into the classroom?

While mathematics education research generates valuable insights into student learning, instructional strategies, and curriculum design, its practical integration into everyday teaching remains a challenge. Also, opportunities to channel problems faced by teachers into research agendas are limited as are the instances of teachers participating in mathematics education research. This theme invites discussions on how practitioners, researchers and policymakers navigate these. There is also the issue of the assumption that knowledge equals pedagogy at the tertiary levels. There is much to be done in terms of research into teaching mathematics, especially at the undergraduate level. 

Key questions to be addressed in this theme:

• What are the opportunities and experiences in action research for teachers ?
• How can teacher education programs bridge the gap between research findings and classroom realities?
• How can teacher educators translate research findings into meaningful classroom practices?
• How can the community work with pre-service and in-service teachers to bridge theory and practice?
• What are the pedagogical challenges in teaching mathematics at the undergraduate level, and what sort of research might help in understanding and ameliorating these gaps?

The NEP (2020) has brought substantial challenges and opportunities for teachers and learners. While the document has specific recommendations, it leaves a lot of space for new pedagogical approaches, innovation and design. However, the flexibility envisaged in the document might itself result in difficulties when it comes to the implementation of NEP-based curriculum across school and tertiary levels. At the school level, the different ways in which different stages have been clubbed make a break from previous decades. As an additional fourth year enters the picture in the undergraduate space the rethinking of mathematics at the tertiary level brings forth immense challenges as well as possible opportunities. This theme invites discussion on ways of handling these, including new pedagogical approaches, research on mapping of textbooks to content, internships and research at the undergraduate level. Key questions to be addressed in this theme:

• What is the impact of the reorganisation of school education? What are the innovative ways of handling the challenges?
• What are the challenges and opportunities in adapting the new textbooks (that are now written following NEP guidelines)
• What are the new pedagogical approaches that can fill in the gaps, across all stages?
• What are the ways of providing internships for undergraduate students?
• What is meaningful research for undergraduate students and how should the undergraduate curriculum adapt?