“Being good in math is not an option. It is a requirement.”

Thus said Queena Lee Chua, a professor at Ateneo de Manila University’s math department, as she spoke about the level of math education in the country during the 146th general assembly of the Foundation for UP-grading the Standard of Education (FUSE).

With “developing a Problem-Solving Culture in the Philippines” as topic of her talk, Lee –Chua said that at the Ateneo, students are taught to do problem-solving rather than the traditional mathematical computation.

problem-solving“Why problem-solving?” Lee-Chua asked. “In 2001, Fr. Nebres (Ateneo president) told me Ateneo is graduating a lot of students, who are now holding positions of responsibility in government, in politics, economics and banking. He said ‘we have failed many of them.’ They came out of the Ateneo with diplomas and with honors, they are well respeted, but they can’t solve problems. Many of them are used to instant solutions.”

She said they want to develop mental toughness, focus, attitude and perseverance among Filipino students.

At the Ateneo, Lee-Chua related, students are given real-life problems whose answers are not in the book. The solutions are not memorized procedures, they are given these problems and solve them. “We want to develop in them mental toughness and focus.”

Lee-Chua added hat on the average, students from Chinese-Filipino schools do better in math, but quickly dispelled this belief as a myth. “This is so illogical. If learning math better is in the genes of the Chinese, then Filipinos could have been very good because Filipinos have lived with the Chinese for centuries. All of us have Chinese blood, so we should not be at the bottom.”

“Genetics does not work that way.” More learning time, pattern recognition of Chinese characters and math symbols, peer influence and Confucian tradition (hardwork, discipline, and parental supervision) are the factors that help Chinese-Filipino schools produce students who are good in math.