Re-thinking the Teaching of Mathematics: COVID-19 and Beyond

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought drastic shifts in teaching, forcing a rapid transition from face-to-face to online learning spaces, with schools adopting new modes of pedagogy and assessment. Educators were faced with a situation where they needed to relearn ways of teaching mathematics and reimagine possibilities for teaching mathematics within the constraints imposed by the pandemic. Despite the difficulties, these constraints gave rise to innovative ways of teaching mathematics, and provided an opportunity for teachers and students to find new ways of interacting and working together. With a focus on the teaching of mathematics at post-secondary level, this paper explores the teaching experiences of four lecturers during the COVID-19 pandemic. It looks at the emerging pedagogical realities as the lecturers adjusted their teaching practices, as well as the pedagogical insights that they gained for their future practice. While initially the lecturers attempted to replicate a teaching and learning environment similar to what was before the pandemic, remote teaching then led to searching for digital tools that sought to enrich the teaching and learning experiences and afforded new opportunities for teaching and assessing mathematics. Following the period of remote teaching, the lecturers are looking towards a future practice as one which involves a blended learning approach, utilising aspects of online teaching and technology to complement and enrich their face-to-face teaching. The pandemic and remote teaching should provide an impetus to the sharing of pedagogical practices and to effective professional development on the use of effective teaching approaches, including the use of digital tools, to enhance mathematical teaching and learning experiences for students.