"I'm just not a maths person." We hear it all the time. And we’ve had enough. Because we believe that the idea of “math people”is the most self-destructive idea in America today. The truth is, you probably are a math person, and by thinking otherwise, you are possibly hamstringing your own career. Worse, you may be helping to perpetuate a pernicious myth that is harming underprivileged children—the myth of inborn genetic math ability.... For high school math, inborn talent is just much less important than hard work, preparation, and self-confidence. How do we know this? First of all, both of us have taught math for many years—as professors, teaching assistants, and private tutors. Again and again, we have seen the following pattern repeat itself:.......
There was a lengthy and interesting discussion
at Academic Board last Friday on the problem of poor performance in mathematics
across the educational system. Clearly, this problem is not unique to
Barbados. The quote above is from an article in which two seasoned
academics suggest a major cultural contributor to the problem, and why it is
less an issue in Asia schools - the belief in some societies that mathematical
ability is genetic as against societies that stress that anything can be
learned through effort and hard work. You can read the article HERE.
Reality Check
The article quoted above suggests that what
students need is "more maths", more time on task. But then
there is another even more interesting perspective, presented in an article by Carol
LLoyd (available HERE ) which
locates the problem squarely on the way maths is taught in schools, in some
cases creating well-drilled "high-flyers" who succeed on rote
learning even in prestigious high schools, and then enter
universities, even those in the ivy league, where they "hit a wall"
when they find that rote learning no longer works. The result she says is
large scale disillusionment as dreams of careers in STEM fields are dashed by a
sudden downward spiral in performance in mathematics which sees many students
transferring into the humanities and social sciences. Sounds familiar?
"Call it the mathematical reality check. Suddenly, Rusczyk recalls, formerly accomplished students were faced with a new idea: that math required more than rote learning — it required creativity, grit, and strenuous mental gymnastics. “They had been taught that math was a set of destinations and they were taught to follow a set of rules to get to those places,” he recalls. “They were never taught how to read a map, or even that there is a map.”
The article goes on to highlight the important role of initiatives such as after-school maths clubs and maths competitions that help students to see the utility and "fun' side of maths, and develop skills of problem solving.
Instead of just learning how to follow rules, he explains, "In math competitions, I learned how to solve problems that I hadn’t seen before.” Instead of math becoming something he accomplished in return for a perfect score, he came to see math as problem solving — an exciting pleasure that was a distant relation to the rote drudgery of memorizing algorithms.
Both articles give good food for thought as we
contemplate ways in which the university might partner with external agencies
in seeking to solve the problem of poor performance in mathematics, and its
critical impact on advancing the Campus' Technology Initiative and achieving the national STEM agenda. Should we consider promoting and supporting the development of math clubs in schools? Or organise a national maths competition???
