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>Students never being told that math is actually difficult and requires perseverance, encountering a struggle for the first time in math, and taking it as a per
by jasode 8y ago
>Students never being told that math is actually difficult and requires perseverance, encountering a struggle for the first time in math, and taking it as a personal failing rather than the expected order of things.
I think this bullet point overlooks other factors contributing to the idea that the math anxiety is a personal failing.
For example, kids doing poorly in math observe other kids that grasp the concepts quickly and don't fall behind. Some get A's without struggling.
The article/study of this thread is about primary & secondary school and at that young age, the math of Algebra, Trigonometry, etc was not difficult for me. It was tedious (e.g. endless manual matrix multiplication exercises) -- but it was never difficult. Some kids really do struggle with basic topics like fractions, percentages, reciprocals, etc.
The first time math was "difficult" was Calculus I. (What's this delta-epsilon proof of a limit all about and why do I care?)
Yes, one has to practice math but kids are not stupid in that they see some of their peers master it easily. The kids understandably conclude that their brain isn't optimized to easily understand math. Explaining to those slower kids that "math is difficult therefore you must practice more" actually increases their math anxiety.
- gerbilly 8y ago> kids doing poorly in math observe other kids that grasp the concepts quickly and don't fall behind. Some get A's without struggling. Two comments. * The kids who appear not to struggle may be struggling at home the night before, or working on math a lot more. * Math will become difficult for anyone who pursues it far enough.
- jasode 8y ago>The kids who appear not to struggle may be struggling at home the night before, or working on math a lot more. One can tell the struggling child that others "may have struggled the night before" but that explanation will not remove the math anxiety because it will not convincingly explain all the performance differences the child sees. For example, in the USA, a primary/secondary teacher will lecture on a new math concept on the whiteboard and there will often be ~15 minutes left over to start the homework assignment. The kids "good at math" get started right away without any visible struggling -- and may even finish the homework before the bell is rung. The slower kids become self-aware that they need the teacher to help them more often. There is no "previous night" to hide a struggle. The slower kids see immediately that some of their peers really do pick up on new math concepts easily without practice. It's their comparisons of their ability to their peers that triggers some of that math anxiety.
- jononor 8y agoDoes that make teaching in groups fundamentally flawed (from perspective of anxiety) then, or how can we reduce this effect?
- gerbilly 8y ago> What's this delta-epsilon proof of a limit all about and why do I care? I remember a test in high school where the bonus question was a delta epsilon proof. It was the only question I got full marks on. On all the other 'easy' ones where you had to memorize the derivatives of fundamental functions (sin, cos tan...) I made many mistakes. The teacher wrote: "You understood the most difficult part, as usual..." I got poor marks on the test, but it's one of my proudest memories as a math student.