NumberWorks: A math tutorial system that really works

MANILA, Philippines - Learning math has always been a universal — and enduring — problem for many students. Fortunately, proponents of a progressive educational institution provided the answer on how students can learn math quickly and effectively yet remain cool and have total fun. All these courtesy of tutorial center NumberWorks, located in Alabang Town Center, and now at its new location on Katipunan Avenue in Quezon City.

In fact, kids are going to have so much fun that they will end up asking for more math works. For parents, they can rest assured that the system is reliable and affordable, too.

The new Katipunan Avenue branch had its formal opening last Feb. 7.

Essentially, NumberWorks combines the technological excellence of purpose-built software created by the company’s own software designers and educators, using accurate child-psychology research, designed around the effectiveness of a specialty-trained tutor and easy reinforcement homework in order to focus on each and every student. 

D.C. Handy, managing director of NumberWorks Phils., explains that NumberWorks’ goal-oriented system has been fine-tuned for over 25 years ever since the first center opened.

A professor for 10 years in the United States, Handy joined NumberWorks because “it works, not just with some students, but with every student, any age, no matter his or her disposition.” 

He said it is such a vast and dependable system that it allows tutors to approach problems from multiple angles very efficiently. 

With such a customized set-up, NumberWorks thus establishes a healthy balance between the apparent coldness of a machine and the hands-on advantage of human warmth in personal tutors and specialized teachers.

Compared to other tutoring centers which are “traditional schooling-based” and “skills-learning but paper-based” systems, Handy said NumberWorks’ math tutorial system can meet both of these needs simultaneously and go beyond them, using the systematic power of computers and hands-on tutoring to provide content material and positive reinforcement. 

“In addition to addressing students’ everyday needs in school like a typical tutor can, the core of our system provides students with ‘learning games’ on the computer. Our daily tutorial results, along with pinpointed weekly homework assignments, help build the tutor-student relationship as well as the students’ self-awareness,” he said.

Most centers, he said, rely on the success tactic of the tutor, which is simply to build accountability to an adult for school performance. NumberWorks encourages and builds upon that same accountability.  

“The NumberWorks curriculum is designed to build confidence with successful learning experiences and provide concrete measures of progress. This is what we mean by ‘having fun while learning,’ and why it is so important. Most tutorial centers are catching up with the most current educational research, but we have been a leader in it. We now know that the emotional content — ‘contentedness’ — of play is essential to anyone’s self-improvement, thereby reaching learning goals and going beyond successful schooling,” he said.

The new learning center is located at Suite 305, Prince David Condominium, Ka-tipunan Avenue, Quezon City, across Ateneo de Manila University and near Miriam College. Soon, a new center will open at Greenhills in San Juan City at One Kennedy Place.

For those living south of Manila, NumberWorks is at the second floor, Casa Vicente Building, Ayala Alabang, Muntinlupa City.

NumberWorks is open Monday through Saturday. For details, call the NumberWorks Quezon City branch at 435-0103 or 393-0611 or the NumberWorks Alabang branch at 772-4655 or 807-6294. E-mail inquiries at [email protected] (Alabang) or [email protected] (Quezon City) or visit www.numberworks.com.ph.