Why do students fail at maths - The Power of Myths? or Reality Check?

The "Math Person" Myth 

"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???