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Casio Global Teachers Meeting 2024 -
Listen to the Opinions of Mathematics Teachers from Around the World!
Global Teachers Meeting held at Casio Headquarters
Casio is supporting mathematics education around the world by providing scientific calculators. This includes not just selling scientific calculators, but also providing support for creating better educational and learning environments, such as teacher training and the provision of teaching materials, as part of GAKUHAN activities.
To carry out the activity, Casio regularly holds Global Teachers Meeting (GTM), where teachers and educators from various countries are invited to discuss mathematics education. This year, we held the meeting again at Casio headquarters in Tokyo over three days in August.
At the Global Teachers Meeting, we obtain feedback for our educational products and services such as scientific calculators, electronic dictionary, and ICT learning application ClassPad.net from teachers who are active on the educational front lines. They provided us information such as what functions of these products and services would make it easier for students to study and what factors would boost their motivation for learning. The feedback is utilized in the development of products suited to the needs of the educational field.
This year, participants included educators from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Australia, and other countries, as well as sales and development members of Casio.
Scene of the meeting
Discussion with teachers
We asked teachers from each country what they actually feel in the field of education and how they felt about participating in the meeting, which was held based on our education business statement, Boost Your Curiosity.
-In your actual teaching experience, when did you feel that the student’s curiosity was boosted?
The clearest example I can give is when studying transformations of functions.
When allowing students to perform their own investigations, it really encourages inquisitive thought, and they ask themselves questions and come to their own conclusions using the calculator.
In the face of the fact that many students, as well as their parents, are not interested in math and have the belief that it is difficult, the number one thing that I’ve found in my career is that the teachers’ excitement about the subject is infectious.
This is a great opportunity to explain the connection between what you learn in math and real life. Math is not just something you do in a textbook or on paper; it is important to teach its connection to real life. Especially for students who are not interested in math, I try to increase their curiosity by using interesting teaching materials if I have time.
-What kind of classes do you think are necessary to boost students’ curiosity?
The idea is to get students' attention by showing them strange situations in the real world where we think math doesn't exist.
In my opinion, it depends on the teacher. In other words, it depends on how the teacher conducts the class. Whatever the tool is, I believe that setting the right questions for students, asking questions, and following up in a timely manner is essential to boost their curiosity.
I have struggled to create “thinking math classes” with one-on-one contact with students when I have worked with junior high school students in the past. Although my time is limited due to preparation for regular classes, I hope to increase the number of such activities as they give confidence to students who are not good at math.
Since it was a small private school, I was able to suspend regular classes for a month in the winter and offered a whole bunch of different short courses in everything from bowling to car repair. It was very meaningful and a break for me as a teacher. Every day I taught card games and talked about game theory and probability...the students just enjoyed them and didn't think it was a math class.
-If there is anything you felt while attending this meeting, please let us know.
I was satisfied because I could see how teachers in other countries teach and how students learn.
I was glad to see that all of the participating faculty members were freer and more active in their presentations and discussions than ever before.
I like the opportunity to not just provide feedback on the product, but also to help design the products and the solutions of the future. Because we as teachers in front of our students every day, know exactly what is needed (design, usability, etc.).
I enjoy attending the Global Teachers Meeting and feeling myself a part of the Casio community. It is a great way to reconnect with friends (and of course Casio members) from all over the world.
We will continue to develop products and services that are closely aligned with the latest trends in the field of education in each country and that address the issues faced by teachers.