More on Math stories
One of the things that teachers are noticing is that
students are afraid to fail. If they don’t
get the answer right away they often will stop trying and wait for the right
answer to be given by the teacher.
According to Dr. Margaret Taplin of the Institute of Sathya Sai Education, Hong
Kong a growing problem is “that more and more students are becoming afraid to
try new things in case they fail, and/or become depressed and question their
own self-worth if they do make mistakes. Mathematics, with its emphasis on 'right'
or 'wrong' answers can potentially reinforce these fears.”
So how can we make it okay for students to “fail”? Well there are the obvious things we can do
in our classrooms, like make them welcoming, building relationships, making the
classroom safe for mistakes (no put-downs, listening with respect, responsible
talk) and introducing stories of famous mathematicians and what they did when
they couldn’t find the “right answer”.
Dr.Margaret Taplin feels that telling our students about
famous mathematicians and what struggles they went through to become successful
is one way.
Another way is to read our students stories which one might
think are only for young children. As a
high school teacher I often read children’s story books to introduce novels or
topics. (For anything to do with civil
rights, children’s rights, oppression, or government, I always read Freedom
Summer by Deborah Wiles: read it, you’ll be glad you did.) But when teaching math, I always start with
Math Curse by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith.
It’s all about a girl who is the victim of a “math curse” and a great
way to introduce how much math is a part of everyday life.
Little anecdotal stories about mathematicians can be found
at
Math Curse is available on line and most likely at a
bookstore near you.
Minky, I believe you are right about how powerful the use of stories can be to our students. Too often I find students get bogged down with the information we teach them and have trouble understanding and applying these topics, especially in Math and Sciences. Stories make lessons meaningful and memorable to students, something that they hopefully will not forget. I do believe this can be a powerful tool in the classroom if used effectively. Just like relating topics to real life applications, I think these are the lessons students remember. Also, I do believe the fear of failure is a huge issue that teachers face with our students. Walk into any classroom and start asking the students questions, and you usually have one maybe 2 hands pop up, and usually it is the same students answering. It's unfortunate, because this fear of failure inhibits our students learning experiences. From my experience, I have found that it is the things that I get wrong, and have corrected that I remember the most. I like the idea you have proposed of introducing the failures of great mathematicians, which help students to try and not be afraid of failure. Without these failures, these mathematicians, may not have made the strides in their field that they did. It reminds me of the famous Thomas A. Edison quote, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." when he was talking about what he went through to invent the light-bulb.
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