Tag: mathematics in relation to healthcare

Experiential Learning: An Effective Teaching Strategy for Mathematics

Mathematics is undeniably a hard subject. Even the great minds of the past such as Albert Einstein know for a fact that there are difficulties in learning the matter. No wonder Math teachers experience difficulties in the way they teach students. The lecture approach where teachers let students memorize mathematical facts has long been gone. Today, teachers are called on to teach new and effective teaching methods to develop not only mastery, but comprehension as well.

Mathematics requires experiential learning where students are involved in their own understanding of mathematical concepts and practices. Through this type of learning, students are able to identify problems, use constructive reasoning to make viable arguments, and applying mathematics in real-life problems.

On improving mathematical concepts, a recent study explained that problem solving in mathematics is not a natural talent, but learned. The teacher’s role is to guide students through practice, provide both routine and non-routine problems, and help them develop their own strategies in solving those problems. In addition, the study highlights the importance of including the students in developing skills in problem solving and sharing them through argumentative discussions.

Traditionally, math textbooks often just provide fixed examples without providing rich experiences in problem solving. Teachers too often review the answers immediately without explaining what strategies students use to solve the problems or if the solutions can be explained by the students themselves.

For teachers to build their students’ mathematical problem solving strategies, they need to provide instruction that explores new concepts through scaffolding. Scaffolding includes asking guide questions that lead to answers rather than supplying them immediately.

In regards to experiential learning at the high school level, teachers need to focus on reasoning and acquire a sense of using mathematics on their daily lives. This is because U.S. high school students have the inability to apply math to solve problems in a variety of situations. This trends needs to be improved through experiential learning.

Is Mathematics Important in Healthcare?

You may be wondering why nursing and medical students need to study mathematics as a part of their course. We thought that nurses, physicians and other health care professionals must only study clinical procedures, treatments, medicines, anatomy and physiology. But the truth is math is incorporated into the daily lives of the health care professionals. Doctors and nurses use math when they write prescriptions or administer medications.  Medical professionals use math when drawing up statistical graphs of epidemics or success rates of treatments.

We are aware that doctors write prescriptions for their patients for various sicknesses. These prescriptions show a particular medication and dosage amount.  Usually, medicines have recommendations for dosage amounts in mg (mg) per kilogram (kg).  Doctors need to determine the number of mg of medicine each patient will require, based on how much they weigh.  When the weight of the patient is just known in pounds, doctors have to convert that measurement to kilos and then compute the amount in mg for that prescription.  There’s a really large distinction between mg/kg and mg/pounds, so it’s imperative that doctors learn how to precisely convert.

Doctors should also figure out how a prescription can last. They must be able to determine how long the medication will stay in the patient’s body. This is important, because through this, the patient will be aware about the interval of the medication. This can figure out how frequently the individual must take their medication to be able to keep an adequate amount of the medication in the body.

Mathematics plays a vital role in medicine. Since people’s lives are involved, it is crucial that nurses and doctors be really accurate with their mathematical calculations.  Numbers will give information to doctors, nurses, as well as patients.  Numbers are very essential within the medical area. Math is a crucial player within the healthcare arena. Medical companies must obtain reliable data and information to avoid, identify and treat medical conditions. Mastery of the tools of health care as well as scientific calculations will provide an efficient and lucrative delivery of services and reduces the chance of medical mistakes that may lead to malpractices and tragedies. The existence of mathematics in the medical theory will assure everyone that our doctors and nurses are properly trained and accurate with their prescription and medication.