Saturday, April 11, 2015

Dispelling the notion that "I'm just not good at Math"

I think often we hear from students who struggle in Math that it is because they are "Just not good at Math". They say things like, "My parents, sisters, brothers are all bad at Math and so am I".  But is this true, is there a Math gene which makes a student good or bad at Math? I don't think so. Obviously, there are people who Math comes easy to, but I believe that every student can be successful at Math at the high school level.  Researchers have looked into this issue and have found, "For high-school math, inborn talent is much less important than hard work, preparation, and self-confidence." (http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/10/the-myth-of-im-bad-at-math/280914/).  I think self confidence especially plays a huge role in a students success in Math (and for all academics for that matter).  It is our job as teachers to instill that confidence in our students, dispel this notion that they are not good at Math, and create an environment for all of our students to be successful.  How do we do this? By doing all of those pedagogical strategies which make our learning environment fun, inclusive safe and memorable.  We do this by creating fun interactive lessons which provide our students with the opportunity to gain a passion for the Math we are teaching.  We use differentiated instruction to allow our students to be successful in their own way, have them gain in confidence in their Math abilities and  build upon their skills.  With some hard work and preparation, our students can be successful and we need to get away from the idea that to be successful in Math, you either have it genetically or you don't.  

2 comments:

  1. This is a great post Peter. I feel the same way and I hear the same thing time and time again from students. As a math tutor the one thing that I find to be most beneficial to my students is to build up their confidence levels, especially before a quiz or test. I find that a lot of students who are not confident in their math skills suffer from anxiety prior to taking a quiz or test which is very detrimental to their success. I also agree with your suggestion of using interactive lessons and differentiated instruction to increase our students passion for learning math. I am a huge believer in this and I am trying to be more accommodating myself for my students.

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  2. I can't agree more with the importance of students' confidence in their math skills, and their self-efficacy in general. From my experiences, in grade 11/12 math classes, there are usually more boys than girls. The notion that boys are generally better in maths (and sciences) has been around for a long time, and it negatively impacts girls' confidence in math. An OECD study suggested that "Gender disparities in performance do not stem from innate differences in aptitude" (http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/mar/05/girls-lack-self-confidence-maths-science-oecd-school-engineering). The study also emphasizes the importance of encouragement and confidence from girls parents. I believe it is also teachers responsibility to help girls build their confidence in math. Girls should think that "I'm just as good at Math as the boys".

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