There are few things in education systems around the world that strike as much terror in the hearts and minds of students as mathematics. According to a Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) study of 15-year-old students from 38 OECD member countries, 61% of students are worried about their math grades, with 59% feeling stressed at the thought of attending their math classes. Is. , 33% are afraid of their math homework, and 30% feel helpless to do anything.
The most dangerous thing about such a crippling fear of mathematics is that it often creates a loop – the more students fear mathematics, the less likely they are to understand it or score well in it, And the poor performance will further increase after this. Fear…all of this ends up leaving the student feeling powerless and frustrated.
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It is nothing short of tragic that a subject as fundamental to a child’s education as mathematics should be the source of so much suffering to young minds during a large part of the most important years of their learning. Ask any teacher and they will tell you shocking stories about the things hapless students have done to eliminate any questions about learning mathematics from their lives as quickly as possible.
There are two kinds of stupidity here: a lack of deep understanding of the role mathematics plays in a student’s academic and future life; And equally, why is it that students are being taught in a way that is scaring them and depriving them of a very important academic and life skill? Something hasn’t been working for a long time, and yet we keep doing it instead of fixing the problem. This approach makes no sense.
Mathematics is an important component for success… In every area!
Excellence in mathematics goes far beyond tests, exams, and scores. Good scores in mathematics tests may give students an advantage in choosing preferred colleges and universities for higher education, but this is only a short-term benefit. Mathematics actually continues to play a role in a student’s life even after schooling is over.
It is only through mathematics that students can create new knowledge and understanding about the world using what is already known – because mathematics, at its foundation, is the craft of deduction and abstraction.
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Mathematics helps children:
- Make a habit of breaking down complex problems into smaller, solvable parts rather than becoming overwhelmed by the complexity of the whole.
- Once they base their reasoning for doing or not doing something on the analysis of data, they gain confidence in their decision making.
- Develop sharp critical thinking skills because once students become comfortable with the numbers in front of them, they are able to synthesize, analyze, and recognize patterns to gain interesting insights about the questions they need to answer. Trying to.
- Be more imaginative, as they create creative hypotheses around the problems they are trying to solve based on the information they have.
- Look for accuracy and clarity in the work they do because numerical evidence leads to absolute conclusions.
But for students to truly benefit from all that math has to offer, even if they don’t intend to pursue STEM, we need to change the way we introduce it to them.
There has been some debate within mathematics in recent years about the linearity of learning. Generally, children around the first follow the following path: basic calculation (addition, subtraction) >> multiplication >> division >> algebra >> geometry >> trigonometry >> calculus (peak).
But an interesting school of thought believes that mathematics would be much more enjoyable and interesting for children if its learning pace followed the way humans think and how children grow and learn. If a child’s imagination is shining at its peak while they are still exploring the universe around them, shouldn’t they be learning about math concepts that relate to constant change, patterns, and structure (basically, Calculus) is related to?
Proponents of this theory strongly believe that forcing children to begin their mathematical journey through the rules of calculation is not only detrimental to development as it clogs up their neural pathways, but also makes the subject so tedious. Gives that most children want to avoid. And thus begins the journey of disinterest due to which students fall behind rapidly in mathematics, as a result of which they leave the subject completely.
It is undeniable that radical change in breaking down the hierarchies of learning in mathematics is still a long way off, especially within formal learning structures and systems.
But that doesn’t mean we can’t make math learning fun and engaging for kids on an individual level. We have to make mathematics real and bring it closer to life.
Show students how mathematics appears in the arrangement of notes in music; In the ratio of elements in art; In physics the movements of planets and galaxies in the universe; how the most subtle fluctuations within our bodies can have huge effects on our biology; From microscopic quantities in chemistry, to special arrangements of words and sounds in English that can produce a desired reaction… math is everywhere, and in the most beautiful ways possible.
The conclusion that comes from this is that we need to accept that a one-size-fits-all approach to mathematics is not how we can encourage a sense of wonder for the subject in children. While we can help children become faster and more accurate in their calculations through mental math tricks practiced through puzzles, we need to use visual learning tools and visual learning tools based on their special interests, to make math learning last. There is also a need to supplement this learning through simulation. Throughout life.
All this is possible only when parents and teachers work together to rewrite the story of mathematics in the minds of students, not with exam results, but with an aspiration for deeper understanding and innovation. Since the biggest reason students fear math is poor performance, not poor understanding, what if we changed the end goal by helping children understand and not just memorize math for a short-term goal?
Imagine a term where children use mathematics as a lifelong tool for understanding the world rather than as a daunting task on their growing up checklist. It will be a world full of inventors and creators.
(Ravi Bhushan is the Founder and CEO of BrightCHAMPS. Views expressed are personal.)
