05-22-2019, 06:50 PM
Today, I was reading an article on "How to overcome a fear of maths". It sounded interesting, but I have to say, I was pretty disappointed: it didn't offer much insight beyond "You'll do better at it if you believe you can do better", which may well be true, but it isn't particularly illuminating. It's also not particularly helpful unless you have a means of building up this self-belief - which, once again, isn't something that this article provides (it states that "there are multiple ways to solve almost any mathematical problem", which is true, but it doesn't really explain how this can be used to build people's confidence).
However, I do think it's worth discussing, because I see this kind of "I'm bad at this" mental blockage far more often with maths than I do with any other subject (it's so common that it's almost fashionable to be bad at maths). And, while it's true that maths isn't for everyone, I do have to wonder whether our teaching methods are turning away people who might get the hang of it if they had simply been taught differently. So, why is this, and what can we do about it?
One issue is that, perhaps more than any school subject, the material taught in maths lessons builds directly on what had been taught in previous years (meaning that, if a student struggles in one year, then they don't have the foundation necessary to succeed in the following year, and the year after that, and so on). Another issue is, if students don't see mathematics as relevant, then they're not going to be motivated to improve. They'll often ask the (perfectly fair and valid) question of "Why do I need to know all this?", and the answer will often be no better than "You're not going to have a calculator in your pocket wherever you go" (when, these days, most people do). Sometimes, schools will try to answer this question by putting problems into some kind of real-world setting - but, honestly, many of these scenarios just seem unrealistic and contrived. Often, the situation is oversimplified to the point where it would never occur in the real world, or the real-world problem would have an obvious non-mathematical solution (What's the maximum area you can enclose with 1 metre of string? I think the real-world answer to this problem is "Who cares when string is cheap, and you can just get more string very easily?" )
Sadly, I don't have the answer to "How to overcome fear of maths", but I'm hoping I can bounce some ideas off people and come up with something. Have you overcome this kind of "maths anxiety" in the past - and, if so, how did you overcome it? Or, if you still have it today, do you have any ideas for what might help you to overcome it? Or, do you think trying to overcome it is a waste of time because this isn't a problem that needs to be solved ?
I'd be interested to hear what you think!
However, I do think it's worth discussing, because I see this kind of "I'm bad at this" mental blockage far more often with maths than I do with any other subject (it's so common that it's almost fashionable to be bad at maths). And, while it's true that maths isn't for everyone, I do have to wonder whether our teaching methods are turning away people who might get the hang of it if they had simply been taught differently. So, why is this, and what can we do about it?
One issue is that, perhaps more than any school subject, the material taught in maths lessons builds directly on what had been taught in previous years (meaning that, if a student struggles in one year, then they don't have the foundation necessary to succeed in the following year, and the year after that, and so on). Another issue is, if students don't see mathematics as relevant, then they're not going to be motivated to improve. They'll often ask the (perfectly fair and valid) question of "Why do I need to know all this?", and the answer will often be no better than "You're not going to have a calculator in your pocket wherever you go" (when, these days, most people do). Sometimes, schools will try to answer this question by putting problems into some kind of real-world setting - but, honestly, many of these scenarios just seem unrealistic and contrived. Often, the situation is oversimplified to the point where it would never occur in the real world, or the real-world problem would have an obvious non-mathematical solution (What's the maximum area you can enclose with 1 metre of string? I think the real-world answer to this problem is "Who cares when string is cheap, and you can just get more string very easily?" )
Sadly, I don't have the answer to "How to overcome fear of maths", but I'm hoping I can bounce some ideas off people and come up with something. Have you overcome this kind of "maths anxiety" in the past - and, if so, how did you overcome it? Or, if you still have it today, do you have any ideas for what might help you to overcome it? Or, do you think trying to overcome it is a waste of time because this isn't a problem that needs to be solved ?
I'd be interested to hear what you think!
Board Information and Policies
Affiliation | Coffee Credits | Ranks and Awards | Name Changes
Account Deletion | BBCode Reference
Moonface (in 'Woman runs 49 red lights in ex's car')' Wrote: If only she had ran another 20 lights.
(Thanks to Nilla for the avatar, and Detective Osprey for the sig!)
My Items