Examining Professionalism in the Context of Mathematics Education

This essay provides a critical and evaluative analysis of professionalism within the context of mathematics education. It begins by defining professionalism and its importance for teachers, emphasizing the need for high-quality values and skills. The essay outlines five key standards for professional teachers: being knowledgeable, aware of diversity, ability to plan, strong communication skills, and ability to collaborate. It further discusses the need for professionalism in speech, attitude, and online presence, while also addressing factors that contribute to poor professionalism. The essay then delves into the challenges and myths surrounding math education, particularly addressing Hacker's critique and the historical perspectives on education's purpose. It highlights the importance of motivation and intellectual stimulation in student learning and concludes by discussing ongoing efforts to improve math education through curricular activities, parent involvement, and addressing negative perceptions of mathematics. The essay underscores the continuous efforts required from educators, parents, and researchers to enhance math education and foster critical thinking skills among students. Desklib provides access to similar essays and study resources for students.

PROFESSIONALISM
Math Education

Professionalism 1
Introduction
Professionalism is defined as the way of practicing the activities or conduct any norms by
providing high quality of values and skills. Today, teachers are the one who have wide
professional standards because they interact with the many people such as students, parents,
staffs and administrators. One can only be a professional when they earn an education degree and
meet some certain criteria. Professionalism may differ from actions to actions that are performed
by them (Porcupile, 2015).
Some values are distinct in nature and they must be known as acceptable values. The
professionalism must be supportive and be a good listener and able to respect all the
administrators and students that exists inside and outside the organization. Practice makes a man
perfect and it also helps to introduce set of values as well. All these values must be strongly
followed by the educators with ongoing observation. New overarching professional standards are
generally followed by teachers that enables students to get involved in the analytical skills. Later,
these standards are divided into sub categories based on their objectives and guidelines. It is very
important that the professionalism values must be approached in a very correct way. A good
professionalism helps to give rise to several opportunities and subjective taught. One can also
learn how to plan lessons with the minimum utilization of resources. He/she must be well
prepared with strong subjective knowledge that can easily be reflected and portrayed from the
way he/she presents himself/herself (Brenda, 2010).
A professional educator is an individual who have strong subjective knowledge and which aims
at reducing the time which is wasted in researching and finding out study materials. They plan
tehri lessons that becomes easy for the others to read and understand. It is worth to comment that
the educator creates an example for others and also will develop important advantages. It takes
years to develop such knowledge skills that others appreciate. Generally, educators develop such
knowledge by reading and gaining information from various sources. They have worked hard to
gain such experience within the education industry.
There are majorly five standards that are set which a professional teacher must have. These are
mentioned below.
Knowledgeable

Professionalism 2
Every teacher must have a sound knowledge of all the curriculum. They must be aware of all the
information about what to teach and how to teach. One must know the technique behind
transferring the knowledge to the students in a more effective way.
Let us take an example of a Math teacher. A math teacher must know how to calculate problems
and solve them with the correct solutions. He/she must help students to show how it relates to
their daily life like if it is related to numbers then how counting is helped when you buy
something at grocery stores. As one knows the world keeps changing and it’s the teacher who are
responsible to remain updated and make their student learn about the changes (Epstein and
Miller, 2011).
Aware of Diversity
Teachers must be aware of the cultural differences and the several experiences that affect the
learning of the students. The differences include ethnicity, language, age, education, income and
many more. Moreover, teachers should modify the instruction lines as per the needs of the
students.
Ability to plan
Teachers must plan their schedules of teaching styles. Planning must be done with the long term
objectives and short term objectives. Teachers must aim at understanding the curriculum goals
and the needs of the student learning styles. Likewise, they must have adequate amount of
resources which is required in the classes.
Strong Communication Skills
A teacher must know what to speak and how to speak so that it can be understandable by the
students. A teacher must have verbal non-nonverbal cues. She/he must have oral and written
communication skills in order to interact the students and support them through supportive work
environment (Harris and Sass, 2011).
Ability to collaborate
Teachers must be understanding and be aware that learning must not be stopped. They must
build a strong bonding with parents of the students and assist them to guide their career. They

Professionalism 3
must have good relationships with other many school administrator and faculties in order to meet
their goals and objectives (Peterson, 2017).
Need of professionalism
Professionalism in speech
A professional is the one who speak with lots of confidence and also has also has the ability to
use different language. They are the one who stand as the pillar of the society and create an
example for others. They are usually experts in grammar and but that does not mean they are the
robot who never makes any mistakes or can never have any fun in their life. They have an equal
right to have fun and enjoy. They are generally faithful and lead a courageous life (Joseph,
2015).
Professionalism in attitude
There are certain things that are liked and disliked by many. Professionals create a positive
attitude and help others to maintain a calm demeanor. They help others to hold their head high by
educating them and creating a sense of happiness. If one has a positive attitude then it will help
them to create sound work environment and vice versa.
Professionalism online
This is the one that really matters to discuss any point in today generation. If one can see.
Everything is available online which is properly documented and can easily be searched. It is the
professionals who put their thought sin it and make it more generous and readable. Some
professionals make their own blogs and tweet information what is helpful to others as well.
Poor professionalism
There are many factors that create a poor professionalism. Some of them are
Not letting students to complete their task and creating no reassurance of learning. It basically
means students must be attracted to learn innovations and gather information.
Being impolite to their students and other staff members (Ministry of Education, 2017).
Creating favoritism with students.

Professionalism 4
Math Education
Educating students about the math education has successfully been done by the professionals.
Educators usually teaches in classroom for better understanding rather than providing personal
assistance. There are huge numbers of topics to be discussed, large number of discoveries, and
several forms to learn those. It is a blessing to have a wide variety of knowledge within oneself and
then let others educate. Getting education must be a challenging but educating others is more
difficult because educating others need to reach their mind and conveying the message (Fuson,
Clements and Sarama, 2015).
The Math Myth
Andrew Hacker’s “The Math Myth” and other many STEM Delusions simply aims at promoting
the path which has been misguided and taken on the wrong direction (Drew, 2015). It was done
many years back and it is very difficult to know how it was mis leaded and created no productive.
So, to guide the path, Hacker started the business where he used to attack school mathematics in
New York Times op-ed. Later he argued against that there is no use of algebra and it was totally
wastage to introduce such calculation which have no future. He stated that algebra has a great and
strong future and it can used effectively to solve millions of calculations. There are plenty of
people who do not have strong memory and who suffers from math phobia but then under such
circumstances, Hacker develop a chord and structed it in their minds. After that, introduction of
book contracts was seen along with adulation (Robinson and Lubienski, 2011).
After that, many people argued on the Hacker’s statements and responded to errors in a very
negative way. For this, many educators from colleges and universities presented as an audience
and argued on it. Some favored Hacker while some pointed him. Some said that the Hacker forgot
the reason behind educating adults. Parents always expect that whatever their child learn must be
used in future or should have some benefits. Learning must create opportunities and some personal
traits are developed along with the knowledge.
Later, the western tradition started along with this arguments in ancient Greece with Socrates. He
stated that virtue lies on the central position while educating young. Aristotle said that happiness
should be the end result of education. One must be happy to gain education. It plays a major role
in maintaining an intellectual life. St. Augustine stated that one must be dependent on teachers to

Professionalism 5
let us get every sort of information. He/she must be able to manage and get something of his own.
It can be learned and cultivated from the inner heart is he/she wishes to do so. Rousseau argued
and stated that children must be exposed to the real world when they start growing up and
starting living in the society where they belong to (Zeichner, 2010). Later, Locke and Mill
convinced that education must be well rounded and used as a tool which will enhance the
intelligence which is mind is capable of and reduce the number of complexities that exists within
the world. Many educators agreed upon it. It is pre assumed that in case of mathematics, the
work depends on the numbers and knowledge system is developed as a part of package. Student
is always considered as the center of the education and they learn a lot only when they are
motivated and supported by the educators and the person who teaches them. Motivation is the
key to success. If a student is motivated, he/she can easily set the concepts in the mind and
explore them (McCarthy, 2017).
Students will grow and develop intellectual stimulation when involved in learning. Generally it
happens that students enhance their ability to face the failure and overcome through it. One must
learn to how to handle difficult problems by putting plenty of efforts and get rid of it.
Educators are working hard to improve what they are still doing. When it comes to mathematics
teacher, they are also working hard to generate more numbers of classrooms, math circles and
workshops and extra curriculum activities related to numbers. Educators are also working to
introduce experiences that will benefit the students and motivate their critical thinking ability.
This will also enable them to foster and overcome the complex problems (Demirbilek and
Tamer, 2010). If any problem is solved correct, then it will be naturally inspiring. Educators are
also working to develop set of curricular activities that will build up tomorrow nation and work
as per their expectation. They are also talking to the parents and encouraging them to present
their ideas that will make the classroom more effective and innovative (Pilgrim, and Thomas,
2017).
How many individual think that the multiplication tables are invented just to torture the students?
Linda Gojak was the president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. He is one of
the famous educators who speaks about the mathematics and its fluency used. He stated that
these fluency is not accepted these days. Today people still remember that how the teachers in
the school used to behave and punish the students. They still remember how teachers used to

Professionalism 6
scold them which generated a negative memory till date. But because of this reason, reducing
mathematics from the whole academic will definitely not be a good way. Math plays a major role
in the curriculum because it helps one to think critically and apply something very logical.
Let us visualize the current position of math education in United States. The math education is
not ideal and used on the right direction as well. But the teachers, educators, parents,
mathematicians, mathematics and researchers everyone is working hard to take it on the right
way. The problem must be solved as soon as possible though I sis not that easy as it seems.
There are huge number of complications and issues involved in it. Every revolution takes time
and so does this revolution (Quora, 2014).
Hacker stated that the students of high schools are failing to perform effectively and cannot even
solve the simple numerical. But then teachers cannot always be blamed for it. Sometimes,
students are responsible by their own to face such problems. It cannot be suggested that teachers
should always put an effort to increase the literacy rate of a country and students must sit ideal.
Teachers can only make the path but it’s the students who needs to walk on it. Hacker later said
that quantitative literacy is very important than the qualitative literacy. And this can be done
through education system. The role of math education in the education system must be one
essential elements in the system (Larson, 2017).
There are huge numbers who are saying that American democratic machine is not showing the
actual results. So does that mean democracy should be given up? Definitely not. So does the
math education. If it is not working properly, then removing it from the root is not the actual
solution but improving its lagging factors is the right way. One must fight against the problem
rather than running away from it (Uribe‐Flórez and Wilkins, 2010).
Today math education plays as a gateway who are involved in STEM jobs. Students can have
more number of opportunities who learn math education as compared to other students. And
when they grow up, they can be great mathematicians as well. They can also use many statistical
tools along with computation ideas that will be used in future. Can one imagine the future
without mathematics? The future will have to suffer without math education (Burton, 2011).
Let us take an example, of a student wishes to drop math education later in his career then that
does not mean that he/she will not have a bright future or cannot have a good job. It is that he/she

Professionalism 7
will be prepared and make their decisions and prevail the opportunities accordingly where math
education will not play a major role.
The American education system is totally different from the other nation. Other nations believe
that students must be taught on the early stage about the career opportunities. But America
believe that students must be guided later. He/she must be capable enough to make choices and
make decisions which is not possible by the school children. American education system is
considered to be one of the best education the entire world. According to a study, it was found
that poverty is the major problem of the public education. And the problem cannot be eradicated
by removing math education from the curriculum. One must understand the power of math
education and its limitations as well. One must know how to solve complex problems and grow
many opportunities.
Some well-known lines helps to know the importance of math education. Mathematics is where
minds can be trained to do things properly. Mathematics is where one can learn critical ability
and think analytically. Mathematics is where one can motivate other to explore more number of
options available. These lines helps to focus on the importance of math education in the next
generation and create a math cycle (Cvencek, Meltzoff and Greenwald, 2011).
According to Anderson and Ronnkvist, in America, 56% of the elementary schools uses software
to teach their students and enhance their skills. Likewise, 62% of the educators uses new and
innovative mathematics skills to make their students learn. This shows the role of technology
which is widely used in the education sector for the most effective and efficient results (Trede,
2012).
The rate of students who prefer maths is decreasing day by day and year by year. This is caused
due to the lack of tools which helps students to study their subject by their own. This will reduce
the time consumed by the students to go to classes and learn things from teachers rather than
sitting at home and learning by own. It generally happens that when there is a problem regarding
maths, students get the solution but does not get how to solve the question by applying logics.
All they know is how to get the correct solution (Hafferty, and Castellani, 2010). . So, learning at
home will help them to recall all the thing that has already been taught once by the teachers. If
we talk about science and English. It is not as tough as math because math needs practice which
can be formed by solving huge number of problems and knowing the exact way how to solve it.

Professionalism 8
Technology also plays a crucial role in the education sectors. Technology has made huge number
of changes that has made students learn more. Today the way teachers teach and the way
students learn is very different from the typical learning in the past. This has shifted the role of
teachers and the students. Students are more active to learn and get appropriate information that
will support their future. We can use technology in many ways in the education sector. Some of
the ways can be making presentation, spreadsheets, databases, internet search, virtual display,
use of important tools to assist disabled people and many more. Disabled students can use many
tool that will help them to solve the complex problems with the help of technology (Ball, 1992).
Similarly, many companies have developed their interest in introducing software in the education
market. Several improvements has been implemented and availability of computers has reduced
the time and cost of the practical solutions. Many soft wares are designed that solve the practical
problems easily and reduce the complexity as well. Today using software to remove math
problem is used in the entire world.
Importance of Technology in Mathematics education
Technology plays a major role in the math education. Use of computers helps to transfer message
from one to another. Different tools are also used to resolve the query of the students. Tools are
used by the teachers who make the students learn about the new techniques. Graphics concepts
and computing concept is also widely used techniques. One of the most common technique is
Math Teacher (Garfunkel and Mumford, 2011).
Math Teacher is a software that helps to solve the maths problems and make the complex
solution in a more simplified form. The students here can understand each steps clearly and
develop strong concepts. This software also include sample problems with solutions.
Thus it can concluded that educations sector plays a major role to build one’s career and create
opportunities in the future. Maths education must be used in education in any curriculum because
math education helps to solve the complex problems and give a more simplified form of any
problems.

Professionalism 9
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