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>written at several levels simultaneously, I don't understand why this bothers people. If something on Wikipedia is above or below my level, I just skip it. It

by scythe 4y ago

>written at several levels simultaneously, I don't understand why this bothers people. If something on Wikipedia is above or below my level, I just skip it. It takes all of three seconds to recognize. I've consistently found it to be a great starting point for self-study in all sorts of math.

thebooktocome 4y ago
A novice isn’t always going to know the difference between something they could understand with effort and something they don’t have the context to understand. It’s an incredibly common cause of anxiety in math education, and even if you’re not personally affected by it others may be.
- hutzlibu 4y ago
  For sure, but Wikipedia aims to be a Encyclopedia and not a math course. Now it surely would be nice, if it could work more like it. That wikipedia knows my skill set and automatically hides or show additional paragraphs in certain topics etc. or even the paragraph in a simpler language etc. But this a bit more ambitious - and not really achievable with the current approach. So if I want a math course, I search for a math course.
- scythe 4y ago
  >It’s an incredibly common cause of anxiety in math education I question whether this can be a root cause of anxiety. Simply not understanding stuff does not normally cause anxiety. Most people don't get anxious looking at, for example, Chinese characters. On the other hand, imputing that something should be frightening can actually cause a fear response: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1993-20380-001 https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1993-20380-001 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030105110600024X https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030105110... https://www.nature.com/articles/nn1968 https://www.nature.com/articles/nn1968 Teaching students that incomprehensible math should frighten them doesn't seem like a good approach. There are no grades or critical teachers when you're passively reading a Wikipedia article.

by scythe 4y ago

thebooktocome 4y ago

A novice isn’t always going to know the difference between something they could understand with effort and something they don’t have the context to understand. It’s an incredibly common cause of anxiety in math education, and even if you’re not personally affected by it others may be.

hutzlibu 4y ago
For sure, but Wikipedia aims to be a Encyclopedia and not a math course. Now it surely would be nice, if it could work more like it. That wikipedia knows my skill set and automatically hides or show additional paragraphs in certain topics etc. or even the paragraph in a simpler language etc. But this a bit more ambitious - and not really achievable with the current approach. So if I want a math course, I search for a math course.
scythe 4y ago
>It’s an incredibly common cause of anxiety in math education I question whether this can be a root cause of anxiety. Simply not understanding stuff does not normally cause anxiety. Most people don't get anxious looking at, for example, Chinese characters. On the other hand, imputing that something should be frightening can actually cause a fear response: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1993-20380-001 https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1993-20380-001 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030105110600024X https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030105110... https://www.nature.com/articles/nn1968 https://www.nature.com/articles/nn1968 Teaching students that incomprehensible math should frighten them doesn't seem like a good approach. There are no grades or critical teachers when you're passively reading a Wikipedia article.