Prof. Allan L. White from the University of Western Australia delivered a general lecture for mathematics education students of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Wednesday (20/11).

In the lecture, Allan White said that mathematics is important for brain development. Thinking, learning, and doing actions can change human genes so that they can form the brain anatomy and human behaviours.

“Teachers get frustrated if students forget the mathematical formulas and so on. That is because the students only remember them; they don’t get the meaning of the learning process. Therefore, that problem is a challenge for the young generations and the future teachers to help improving education, especially mathematics education,” he said.

“Diligent students will remember facts and repeatedly do assignments based on the teacher’s instruction. They even can give correct answers for the problems. However, if they can’t get the meaning of their learning, at the end of the learning process, the brain will not save the information in the long-term memory.”

Allan White added that teenagers’ brains can store and process 7 pieces of new information in one second. On the other hand, elderly people aged 80 years old can only process 2 pieces of new information at the same time. (witono)