Teaching the relevance of mathematics

M.Ed.High school mathematics learners often take mathematics education for granted. They study mathematics simply because it is included in the school curriculum, and thus required for them to pass so that they can obtain a school leaving qualification. They never really succeed in seeing and understanding the relevance of mathematics to their present and future lives. As a result, they fail to relate and apply classroom mathematics to the external environment. They fail to make mathematical connections that would enable them to be confident users of mathematics as an effective tool for solving problems, a means of communication and a way of supporting reasoning. This suggests that there may be some serious constraints associated with the teachers' instructional approaches, which hinder the learners' meaningful learning and understanding of the relevance of mathematics. Thus, there arises the need to examine the relationship between the teachers' instructional approaches and the learners' understanding of the relevance of mathematics. Such an examination may help to expose the strengths and limitations of the instructional approaches, so that the necessary adjustments can be made in the teaching practice to improve the learning of mathematics