So what is mathematical literacy? How is it formed? To answer this question, we should start with human understanding of the world. The most fundamental motivation for human beings to understand the world comes from two aspects: curiosity and interest, which is what Ausubel usually calls "cognitive internal drive". Children are naturally curious-we can observe a newborn baby. Although he or she has no ability to express himself or herself, his or her curiosity to explore the world begins from the moment he or she opens his or her eyes. The more they constantly explore and understand the world around them, the more they can get satisfaction from it. In fact, this applies not only to humans, but also to the animal kingdom. For example, people's pet kittens are particularly interested in things like thread balls and even have fun. Although every child is curious, his interests are very different. In short, boys prefer logical and rational things, such as cars, planes and toy guns, which can arouse their interest. On the contrary, girls may prefer emotional and romantic things, such as flowers, dolls and other things that can attract their attention. The above two differences may be inherent in human beings, and thinking in images and abstract thinking are the necessary stages for every normal growing child. Comenius advocates "arousing children's desire for knowledge and learning by all possible means", and teachers should follow the trend, and it is part of their responsibility to cultivate students' rational and abstract thinking ability.
Mathematical methods and ideas need subtle influence.
In the process of mathematics education, although there are different courses, different mathematics contents or fields, students ultimately learn mathematics methods, which mainly include the following aspects: analysis, synthesis, reduction to absurdity, induction, enumeration, modeling, elimination, substitution, undetermined coefficient and so on. For example, children will learn from life at first. For example, if I don't go to bed on time at night, I may be late for school the next day. If I don't want to be late, I will go to bed on time. Then slowly apply it to the field of mathematics. For example, the sum of three numbers is greater than 6, and at least one number must be greater than 2, so it is gradually applied in work and study. Another example is enumeration, which involves the idea of classification. All possible situations should be listed, and there should be no omissions, which will be often used in future work and life. The application of mathematical modeling is more extensive, such as the maximum benefit analysis of enterprise production and architectural design, which needs to be solved by modeling.
With the in-depth understanding and application of mathematical methods, students will gradually form some mathematical abilities. Simply put, the structure of mathematical ability should include three traditional basic mathematical abilities, namely, operational ability, logical thinking ability and spatial imagination ability. Specifically, it should include: abstract thinking ability, logical reasoning and judgment ability, spatial imagination ability, mathematical modeling ability, mathematical operation ability, data processing and numerical calculation ability, mathematical language and symbol expression ability. These abilities can't be given to students by our teachers, that is to say, teachers can only let students master the calculation method, but can't give them the calculation ability. Children need to constantly reflect and feel in independent analysis and problem solving, and gradually improve their abilities in some aspects through specific problems. For example, students can improve their logical reasoning and judgment ability, mathematical language and symbolic expression ability by proving the congruence of two triangles.
In the gradual acquisition of the above-mentioned mathematical abilities, students will also be gradually infiltrated by mathematical ideas. Traditional mathematical thought mainly includes the following aspects: combination of numbers and shapes, transformation, motion transformation, classification discussion, classification, function and equation. For example, in the study of Pythagorean theorem, students will gradually realize the idea of combining numbers with shapes and the idea of equations, and at the same time, they will use the transformation idea (converting the area of a square into the area of a triangle) when verifying Pythagorean theorem with the area method. When solving related graphic transformation problems, we will experience the ideas of motion change, classification discussion and function.