REASONING PATTERN AND PERSONAL QUALITIES OF SUCCESSFUL MATHEMATICS TEACHERS

It is an alarming situation that students are not doing well in mathematics at school as well as at college and university level in India. There is a need to pay attention to this problem. A very small portion of the students passing out of school system prefer to study mathematics as a main subject at college/university level. Those who pass their secondary level examination prefer to go either to the engineering courses or to medical courses. If they are unable to find seats in either of these professional courses, they take up admission in any undergraduate programme just to get themselves enrolled in the university and prepare for another chance for admission to professional courses mentioned above, and do not pay serious attention to the courses at undergraduate level, which they pursue. Many of those who go for study of mathematics as a subsidiary subject with less interest do not take the subject seriously and feel contented with minimum test scores required for a pass. Out of 1100 secondary school pass-outs included in the sample for this study, only 2.09% studied mathematics at postgraduate stage and preferred to join the Bachelor of Education (B. Ed.) course and undergo training as teachers of mathematics. The major objective of this paper is to answers the question why we are not getting good mathematics teachers for schools in India.