What are some short term and long term changes a teacher can make to planning and instruction to improve student achievement in high school mathematics.

 

As teacher is in charge to fill the minds and hearts of students with wisdom and knowledge. Because of that, careful planning on how instruction will be implemented in order to achieve short term and long term goals.

For short term achievements, a high school teacher who teaches Mathematics should give small incentives to students who will give the correct answer. For example, the teacher will have students solve multiple math problems and he/she will ask students to volunteer and solve the problem on the board. If a student will get the correct answer, then the teacher will give small incentives like food chips and chocolates and shower students with praises. The explanation and impact of that it will make the students motivated and eager to learn and will be encouraged to answer more questions because of the positive reinforcement given by the teacher. Also, when all students are motivated by the incentives given by the teacher, the class will be filled with active students and the discussion will be lively. Another small term achievement that can motivate students is when the teacher is giving a quiz, the top 3 scorers of the class will be announced. The impact would is students who are announced will have social recognition and gain some confidence in themselves.

For long term achievements, a teacher must carefully plan his/her lesson in order to achieve long term goals for the students. For example, when making lesson objectives, the mathematics teacher should make sure that the lesson would cover the cognitive, psychomotor and affective domains of learning. A teacher should enhance the cognitive ability of the students and fill their minds with knowledge through thorough discussion and explanation. The teacher can also incorporate mathematics lessons with physical exercises like dancing. Lastly, the teacher should touch the affective domain of learning by instilling values that the students will remember forever like making them realize how useful mathematics knowledge can be in the real life setting. The impact for the students is that they will become knowledgeable individuals with strong sense of values and eventually will become productive members of the global society.