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The study is to find significant relations between rote/meaningful learning perspectives on Mathematics of 51 primary school teachers and the learning happening in 145 children. The variables taken under consideration for this study were the type of schools (aided or unaided) and experience of teachers. The tools formulated for the study were questionnaires for teachers and activities for children of grade I, II and III that measured rote learning and meaningful learning in Mathematics. Through t tests and ANOVA, results were found that there was significant difference between meaningful learning perspectives of aided and unaided primary school teachers; meaningful learning of children at different grades in aided schools; rote learning of children at different grades in unaided schools; meaningful learning of children at different grades in unaided schools; teachers' rote/meaningful learning perspectives and children's rote/ meaningful learning in mathematics. There was no significant difference found in rote learning perspectives of aided and unaided primary school teachers; the perceptions of primary school teachers on rote learning and meaningful learning with respect to their years of experience and rote learning of children at different grades in aided schools. A pattem of learning derived that showed the change from rote to meaningful learning in children of primary schools.
Keywords: rote learning, meaningful learning, mathematics, teachers
The most important thing for children to learn in mathematics in the primary years is how to learn mathematics. The biggest problem is that in learning this subject, individuals can develop rote learning mind set. In essence this means that the children have stopped trying to make sense of what they are taught or asked to do in mathematics; they just sit there waiting for the teacher to tell them what to do with a particular type of question. They no longer want to understand. They see learning mathematics as a matter of learning a whole collection of routines and recipes for different kinds of questions. Sadly, they may even have learnt that to get the teacher's approval and the marks in mathematics tests you do not actually have to understand what is going on, youjust have to remember the right procedures. If children, learn this in primary schools, then they have not learnt how to learn mathematics. The biggest challenge in...