Pearson Middle East today opened its doors to more than 50 professionals in the higher education sector with the aim of improving students’ engagement in Mathematics.
Pearson’s ‘Math Day’ is a professional event that addresses learning challenges with practical sessions to help accelerate how educators support their learners to develop their knowledge and skills on what matters the most now, and in the future. The full-day programme aims at strengthening the pipeline of STEM students to both support UAE’s educational system and contribute to the growing needs for a skilled workforce.
Mohamed Kais Zribi, Regional Director, Gulf & Levant Pearson Middle East commented, “Pearson’s Math Day is an initiative to arm educators in the higher education sector with the right tools, strategies and resources to help students succeed in their studies and meet their career goals. The full-day event brings one of the highly esteemed Math authors in the world to share with educators how he inspires students to develop a passion for math. The practical sessions are especially catered to the Middle East and expose educators to more in-depth strategies to help students succeed in problem-solving and critical thinking.”
The full-day event was kicked off by Eric Schulz, who co-authored an online interactive Pre-Calculus and Calculus textbooks used in colleges and universities across the world. In addition to bringing the subject to life with interactive graphics in his eTexts, Schulz addressed the current state of Math in the UAE, with strategies on how to engage students to enhance the Math learning experience while developing strong analytical skills. Schulz also zeroed in on how educators can adapt their teaching methodologies with approaches on how to overcome classroom difficulties including cheating and learning deficiencies. Amongst the interactive sessions delivered, attending educators were provided with digital tools and resources to help them engage and inspire students to achieve more. The use of interactive learning responses tools was also highlighted to facilitate and encourage team-based learning.
“Success in mathematics can increase the opportunities you will have in your career,” said Professor Eric Schulz. “Strong quantitative skills, built from success in mathematical studies, can improve an individual’s ability to solve problems in the workplace.”
Fears of technologically-driven unemployment have arisen throughout the centuries, usually provoked by a disruption, like the Industrial Revolution. However, automation is only one part of the story. Equally important are other trends including: changing demographics, urbanisation, globalisation, inequality, political uncertainty. Employers also regularly express concerns that young adults lack the necessary communication and number skills needed for success in today’s workplace. According to National Numeracy, the digital era outputs a lot more numerical data than before, with around 90% of graduate jobs requiring a high level of digital skills, built on numeracy. These factors make it critical to understand the jobs and skills needed in the future, making professional events such as Math Day, is a step forward in this direction.
Pearson MyLab Math is Pearson’s world-leading online homework, tutorial, and assessment products, that aims to improve the results of higher education students. It is also one of the many educational learning tools available to assist educators by combining classic principles of teaching, trusted content and interactive products. Used by more than 11 million student users annually, Pearson MyLab creates online learning experiences that are truly personalised and continuously adaptive. Pearson MyLab reacts to how students are actually performing, offering data-driven guidance that helps them better absorb course material and visualise as well as conceptualise difficult concepts.
Following a successful STEM event earlier this year, Pearson Math day is the second educational event organised for professionals in the education sector across the Middle East. The Math day events ran across the UAE, KSA and Kuwait.