Teaching and learning of laws of logarithms : a prospective pedagogy

Literature shows that students have a shallow understanding, including misconceptions, of laws of logarithms. This is despite of the fact that these rules are essential in learning advanced mathematics. This paper based on teaching experience, analysis of textbooks, and classroom observation argues that the difficulty in learning these concepts is partly associated with rule based teaching that encourages rote learning and is not supported by the psychology of learning. To overcome problems with product, quotient and power rules, a guided inquiry based, ICT enriched, investigative pedagogy is proposed. The students in small groups are expected to investigate accepted and unexpected (misconceptions) equations of log rules side by side. They plot 3D graphs of the above equations and solve them to generate their own data. They are then recommended to test their self-generated and teacher given data to compare similarities and differences in the ranges of the equations data to select the most suitable and general log rule equations. This pedagogy is evaluated using theories of learning and it is well supported form constructivism and neuro-cognition. Considering the proposed advantages for teaching laws of logarithms, this pedagogy is recommended for further research into smart teaching and learning.