Mathematics as a Gateway to Management Student's Success

Abstract

The study of mathematics stands, in many ways, as a gateway to student success in education. This is becoming particularly true as our society moves inexorably into the technological age. Therefore, it is vital that more students develop higher levels of competency in mathematics. The standards and expectations for students must be high, but that is only half of the equation. The more important half is the development of teaching techniques and methods that will help all students (rather than just some students) reach those higher expectations and standards. This will require some changes in how mathematics is taught. Effective education must give clear focus to connecting real life context with subject-matter content for the student, and this requires a more ''connected" mathematics program. In many of today's classrooms, especially in management college, teaching is a matter of putting students in classrooms marked "Management" "Economics," "Accountancy," or "mathematics," and then attempting to fill their heads with facts through lectures, textbooks, activities and the like. Aside from an occasional lab, workbook, or "story problem (case studies)," the element of contextual teaching and learning is absent, and little attempt is made to connect what students are learning with the world in which they will be expected to work and spend their lives.