INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS FOR TEACHING MATHEMATICS

Importance of instructional materials in teaching

We begin by quoting a popular Chinese proverb whose very essence of the message stresses
the effectiveness of learning which involves using various sense modalities. The proverb
goes:
What I hear, I forget
What I see, I remember
What I do, I know
This proverb itself is self-explanatory. In using a formal lecture method, where students have
to listen throughout the lesson, there is very low retentively. However where teaching
incorporates some aspects of seeing or doing as well, our students are likely to remember
more of what we have taught them. But when we involve our learners in some activities in
the classroom, then you will agree that learning can become an unforgettable experience for
our students. We must remember all the time that mathematics is an abstract subject which
presents relatively more problems to our students compared with other subjects. Instructional
aids are therefore crucial mathematics teaching in order to bridge the gap between the
abstract and the concrete.

(i) Audio aids - that which can be heard but not seen e.g. radio, record players, audio-tapes.
(ii) Visual aids - That which can be seen but not heard e.g. pictures, diagrams, maps, charts,
magazines, books.
(iii) Audio-visual - that which can be seen and heard e.g. films. Television, video tapes, video
cassettes.
(iv) Community resources - these are found in the community e.g. people, things, places,
activities.

Whichever resources are used by the teacher, the purpose is to promote or improve the
effectiveness of communication of ideas by the teacher to the learners.
For the purpose of teaching practice the student teachers may use as many resources as they
can lay their hands on but the extent to which these resources contribute to the achievement
of instructional objectives is determined by the supervisor whose work is to help the trainees
to improve his or her instruction. This paper which focus on some of the resources the
trainees are likely to use and what the supervisor should look for in these resources.
The main focus will be on the most commonly used resources, these are:
(i) The Chalkboard
(ii) Charts
(iii) Textbooks
(iv) models
(v) Environment
(vi)Printed materials
Each of these resources shall now be discussed in detail.

THE CHALKBOARD
The chalkboard remains the most useful tool in any classroom. The proper use of the
blackboard indicated how prepared and organized the teacher is. It makes the lesson
interesting.
Uses of the Chalkboard The teacher uses the chalkboard to:
 Give notes
 Give exercises or assignments
 Give tests or examinations
 Draw illustrations
 Planning the use of the Chalkboard

The student teacher must always plan the use of the chalkboard carefully during his/her
preparation for each lesson. He/she can do this by asking the following questions:
 What will be written on the board?
 How will it be written?
 Where on the board will it be written?
 When or at what point in the lesson, will it be written?

What the teacher will write on the board depends on the subject but will fall into one of the
following:
1. Reference material:
This includes items that will remain on the board to the end of the lesson: it may be written
on the board as the lesson progresses.
i. It is made up of the more important points that the students have to remember or write
down.
ii. Material for lesson development: This material is written at each stage of the lesson:
some of it may be erased as the lesson progresses and others transferred to the
reference section of the board.
iii. Impromptu jottings: Students may ask questions that the teacher did not predict and
the teacher can write the answers on the board.
The teacher should also write the date, subject and topic across the top of the board for the
students.
This plan for the use of the chalkboard implies that the teacher divides the board into
sections. The supervisor should check on this and advice the student teacher accordingly.
Other important things to look for include: The teacher should not face the board squarely
with the back to the students. He/she should stand at such an angle that he/she can write and
 yet turn easily to keep and eye on what is happening in the classroom.
2. Writing-style for the Chalkboard.
 The writing should be neat, legible and consistent.
 The teacher should ensure that his/her writing can be seen by all students. The size of
the letters should be recognizable and uniform.
 The writing should be straight and horizontal on the chalkboard.
Student teachers who cannot keep their writing straight should be advised to do the
following:
a) Practice writing on the board during their free time
b) Use a chalkboard ruler to draw horizontal lines to guide them
c) Divide the chalkboard into two or more parts, so that only short stretches of the board
are used at a time.
3. Chalkboard Drawings
The chalkboard is no place for detailed drawings because chalkboard work is used only
for short periods of display. The drawings should have bold outlines and should draw
quickly to illustrate points of a lesson, as the teacher talks.
4. The teacher should always start on a spotlessly clean surface without any traces of the
previous lesson. He/she should also rub the board clean at the end of the lesson.
5. Chalkboard work should be built up piece rather than writing everything at one go.
6. The teacher should not concentrate on writing on the board so much that he/she fails to
communicate with students.
7. The supervisor should check on all these points and ensure that each student-teacher
makes good use of this valuable teaching aid.
Standing position at the Chalkboard
This is very important to observe so as to avoid obstructing the student's view of the board.
If the teacher is right-handed he/she should stand to the left side of the board and left-handed,
to the right side. The teacher should move side-ways as he/she writes.

CHARTS
A chart is a combination of pictorial, graphic, numerical materials designed to present a clear
visual summary of an important process or set of relationships. The most commonly used
types of darts are:
Outline Charts: The content is organized into an outline, showing the main points. This can
be drawn on the chalkboard.
a) Tabular Chart: Is a presentation of information in columns or a table.
b) Flow Chart: It is used to show functional relations and quantitative of the flow of
events or activities carried out by people, animals or objects.
 c) Organization Chart: It is used when explaining how items or persons are arranged in
an organization to give effect to the chain of command.
d) Process Chart: It represents the flow of activity as well as the orderly sequence of
separate stages
e) Flip Charts: These are a series of charts containing visual information about the same
subject/topic area of knowledge.

Characteristics of a Good Teaching Chart

1 It must serve a clear and well defined purpose or objective.
2 It should be so large and every detail should be seen from far.
3 It should display information only about one specific area in a topic.
4 It should not contain too much written materials.
5 It should be neat and attractive.
6 It should be held in a classroom ata central point.
7 It should have a margin or a frame.
8 It must have balance, shape emphasis, contrast and harmony.
9 Color should be well used.

Models
One of the reasons for making Teaching Aids is to bridge the gap between what is abstract
and a concrete situation which resembles it. The degree of abstractness varies from topic to
topic in a subject like mathematics. For example a topic such as "Three Dimensional
Geometry' is a typical kind of topic which usually gives learners problems unless appropriate
aids are used. This is because visualizing planes, lines, points as well as the intersection of
lines with lines, plane with lines and so on, presents students with awful difficulties in
imagining what goes on without concrete objects physically before them to help in
visualization. In teaching such a topic, we should be ready with solid objects which will be
helpful in enhancing students learning. A teacher who teaches for example one of such topics
without making use of solids will be unlikely to succeed in teaching this topic.

Models and solid objects are the kind of teaching aids which mathematics teachers in the
department can contribute in making using their respective class. Once they are made they
can be stored for later use. Provided manila papers, glue, straws and thread are available,
students can be led to make these objects either during normal class work or during
mathematics club activities (if the school has such a club). Not only would such activities be
exciting to students, they would also be contributing towards the making of teaching aids.
The environment as a source of teaching aids
We can make teaching aids and also we can utilize the technological products of available in
order to enrich the learning environment. We have to accept the fact that it is impossible for
teacher to expect conditions where many teaching aids will be constantly available. Financial
constraints as well as heavy teaching loads make it difficult for us to fully meet our objective
of obtaining self-sufficiency in teaching aids. However a conscientious teacher must be aware
the richness of environment in terms of availability of teaching aids. Let us consider some of
apparently 'useless' things which can become useful in the teaching -learning process.
We can collect discarded tins; empty boxes bottle tops, nails, marbles, envelopes, empty
bottles, etc. We may not see immediately use of such items yet sooner or later they may turn
out to be useful aids when we are teaching. For example:
a) In teaching numeration system we could use tins and bottle tops to explain the
concept of place value.
b) In teaching probability we could use bottle tops, marbles, pieces of paper put in
envelopes- to illustrate theoretical probability of occurrence of events.
c) We can collect in any objects within the environment which will reinforce the
teaching of a topic such symmetry. The environment is full of objects which have a
lot of relevance in teaching mathematics.
d) We can use ropes, "slinky" to help students when we are teaching them periodic
functions such as sine and cosine functions.
e) We can teach our students the solving of equations and inequalities by making use of
simple balances and levers we have constructed from the materials obtained within
the environment.
f) Students can be taught about enlargement by making use of photographs, .model toys
which may have been discarded may yet be very useful in mathematics teaching.
It is our own inventiveness as well as our enthusiasm which will make us utilize the
surrounding environment properly. When student teachers and even regular teachers claim
that mathematics has few teaching aids, this is really not true since they may not have
scoured the environment to the full.
TEXTBOOKS
These are necessary teaching aids, they include:
i) Set textbooks which are recommended by the Ministry of Education.
ii) Supplementary books
iii) References materials
Textbooks have many advantages if used properly.
What to look for in the use of Textbooks
 The teacher should avoid using the textbook as a course outline that is word for word
during the lesson. Instead, he/she should use it only as a source material.
 The teacher should add reality to the textbook abstractions by supplementing with
displays, charts, models, etc.
  The teacher should use the books to individualize instruction through independent
study assignment, e.g. invite students to use particular textbooks portions to do
assignments write notes.
 Make full use of the visual content of textbooks, e.g. graphs, models, picture
diagrams, illustrations.
Printed materials as teaching aid

We have already seen how the text book is an extremely useful teaching aid. There are other
printed materials whose collection may turn out to be of invaluable help. Newspapers and
other periodicals contain diagrams and charts which are relevant in teaching mathematics.
Here are possible aids we could get from newspapers and periodicals.
a) In teaching statistics
Newspapers and periodicals are full of bar charts, circle graphs, ideographs about daily life
statistical information concerning our population. The bar charts might illustrate export or
import of various items, the volume of trade between various African countries etc. These
kinds of aids bring mathematics closer to the real life experiences of the learners. When
students see for themselves annual government expenditure illustrated in the form a circle
graph they will not only see the relevance of such methods of representing statistical
information, their understanding of mathematics will also be broadened. We can cut
interesting bits of information from printed matter and post them on bulletin boards for
students to study and to motivate them.
b) In teaching projections and plan
The topic on projection is meant to familiarize students with architects; drawings and to
understand drawings made using third or fourth angle projection. Drawing of plan, side
elevation and end elevation can be obtained from newspapers and other relevant periodicals
and in using them our students' appreciation of their usefulness can be brought out clearly.
The use of calculators in a mathematics class
Technological advances have resulted in the production of such aids like calculators and
pocket computers being readily available to aid in problem solving situations. In developing
countries such as Kenya these electronic aids are not readily accessible to our students. But
even if they were, a major battle has always raged among mathematics teachers whether such
computation aids should be allowed within our classes. There are pros and cons to these
issues. In as far as a calculator aids in working out problems, it would seem that it is valuable
in the classroom and should be allowed. It opens up the possibility of student's tacking for
more ambitious problems than they could use more traditional methods. On the other hand
however, children who are exposed to the use of calculators sometimes end up demonstrating
very low competence in computation. They may end up pressing buttons without having the
slightest idea of the mathematical processes involved. We should therefore discourage the use
of calculators until students have built a strong foundation in mathematics learning. Students
should be able to compute without such aids and this by itself is important in solving daily
life.
Exercise
Q1.Construct a teaching aid that you can use to teach the topic on angles of elevation and
depression. 5marks
Q2. Construct a teaching aid that you can use to teach the topic three dimensional Geometry.
10 marks.
Q3.What are the advantages and disadvantages of using scientific calculators for the students
in secondary school? Highlight ways to make their use important for the learners.5marks.