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Psychology of Math Learning
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Post Your Signup Essay Here
I would like everyone to post the essay on their math history that they wrote as their signup task to this thread so that we can all see each other's stories. Make sure you comment on this thread, and add your name.
My Math Story
I was raised in a very academic-oriented family where developing our intelligence and doing well in school were top priorities. So I always worked hard in school and earned good grades and, on the whole, learned well and enjoyed it. To be honest, while I did work hard, it all came pretty easily to me. All, that is, except math. Math is the one subject I remember struggling with. I can remember my father helping me with my math homework, and me crying because I didn’t understand it. That was when “new math” was the rage (although I don’t know whether that was the issue or not).
That is not to say that I didn’t get good grades, because I did. Maintaining straight As was so important to me that I would do whatever it would take to earn top grades. But for most of my classes, although I memorized a lot of stuff for a lot of tests that have long ago faded away, I think I retained most of the fundamental principles of the different disciplines. And in the humanities--literature, language arts, and history/government in particular--I even remember many of the details about what I studied so long ago.
But not with math. I learned what I needed for the tests, but most of it is gone now. I look at even middle school math these days, and it is virtually incoherent to me. I can’t believe I used to be able to do those problems, because I don’t have a clue about how to tackle them now. It’s not like in other subjects, where I have to “brush up” or be reminded about the specifics I’ve forgotten. In math, it’s like I’ve got to learn it all again.
I was fine with that, though, because I didn’t need to be solving algebraic equations in my life. I was OK doing the math I needed to create project budgets and timelines, for example, or doubling recipes, or figuring out the bills in restaurants.
But the, of course, along came my son....a son who, as it turns out, shares my weakness in math. A son who, as it also turns out, we have decided to homeschool. A son who, despite my best efforts to make math fun and multifaceted and low pressure and such, is already starting to think of himself as “dumb” when it comes to math and who scores even lower on standardized tests that he would otherwise because he has freaked out and decided he doesn’t know how to solve certain problems that he is capable of doing if he calmed down and tackled it bit by bit.
So this class is an attempt to keep from passing my math difficulties on to the next generation. I want to see if I can use an area I do know a lot about--psychological theories that help us individualize education in meaningful ways--to improve learning about math, both for my son and for myself.
Carol
Here is mine:
I loved learning and math as a kid. I started having troubles when i reached 7th Grade. I was born in 1961, so the way we learned math was mostly rote. I memorized the tables. But I dont think i every really understood how to think about math abstractly. Once i got to the point in math that was about concepts i failed miserably.
I loved the sciences but had to switch to journalism because I couldnt pass physics. Although i did okay in chemistry. I dont think we (women) were really expected to do much with ourselves. Many of us, i think, were sent to school to get our MRS, degree. We stood a much better chance at life in terms of finding an educated, professional husband, if we were in college.
Later in life i took some math courses just because it always bugged me that I failed at it in high school and college. the prof was patient with me and took time to explain concepts to me in a way that i could understand. I got A's and B's. I also bought books that were about math but were engaging to read.
I've always been curious about this subject. Even though I went back and retook classes and found a way to prove to myself that I could do the work, I still dont get math! If someone brings up a problem solving exercise that is mathmatical in nature, my mid literally goes blank. Its like my brain goes "I cant do this" - even though i know I probably could. it doesn't come naturally to me.
My stepson however is a wiz at math and he dumbfounds me. He gets it in a way I never could and probably never will. I find it fascinatiing because it is after all a language....why cant I speak math?! Its like I know all the word and know the order they are supposed to go in (rote) but I dont know what the sentence means.
My interest in participating is a mixture of my own frustrating experience and sheer curiousity!
Hey. My name is Seema. Reside in Bangalore India. I am a 37-year old mother of a 10-year-old girl.
Learning basic mathematics was easy enough, but when the levels got tougher it was a real struggle. Maths and Physics were not my favorite subjects at all, I barely cleared my 10th grade exams. Had to give up pursuing Chemistry and Biology because I was so miserable at Maths and Physics. Presently teaching Maths to my daughter is taken care of by my husband because I am so unsure of my ability to tutor her properly. Think I may have passed on some of my apprehension about Maths to her :( .
Remember my parents trying to make Maths a fun thing for us. When we went on car rides, we played a game where we had to total the numbers on the number plates of the cars in front and we had to do them before they were out of sight. During trips to the market, we were put in charge of "accounts" - how much of which vegetable/fruit/grocery item was purchased, what was the rate, total amount paid and change collected at each vendor. Nowadays, morning exercise on the treadmill is a daily maths mental exercise - counting average speed/time/calories, but all of this is simple Mathematics. I like the numbers 5 and 10. When totaling a set of numbers, I first sub total them to multiples of 5/10 and then arrive at the grand total.
I have noticed that people who are good at Maths tend to be good at strategy based games such as chess. They also are better at Science and related subjects, though this could be the conditioning that we have in our society/culture - Good at Maths, do Science and become Engineers/Doctors. Science graduates are better than others (Doctors and Engineers top the list)- though this trend is definitely changing. I think you are born good at Maths or not. I have used Cuisenaire rods and other similar mathematical tools, but Maths is still not a favorite.
Hello Everyone,
This might sound silly, I wanted to reuse the paragraph I already wrote to sign up but was unable to do so.
I might it again but I prefer the original one.
I notice here that until now I am the only one who makes a living (and loves) from maths, hopefully I won't be the only one.
I am also a mother who hopefully transferred the love of maths to my first son and may be to the others (still too young to judge)
Regards
Oula
Hey Oula, Fellow student with you in this course. Was wondering where you are from. How are you making a living from Maths?
Hi Everyone,
My name's Sean and for a long number of years maths has been a very difficult area for me to master.
As we all know, today in the world of academic derby's where people compete with each other for various statuses or positions using their educational qulifications; math has become a very important subject and it is because of this fact that i came to P2PU and a lot of others to deal with my math phobia.
Regards
Sean
Hi! You from Sri Lanka? "today in the world of academic derby's where people compete with each other for various statuses or positions using their educational qulifications" this bit you have put in here sounds so much like things here in India. :)
Yes i am, and unfortunately its more of a race to get a degree than to get what really important in life. some infact get degrees and just stay at home and if you inquire its just to have social status.
Good Morning Everyone -
My name is Gina and I am a 32 y/o, homeschooling mom of a 13 y/o daughter. I work from home doing billing services for several family members' businesses.
Here is my Math Story from my original application -
Math has always come super easy to me. When I was in elementary school I was given the opportunity to work with other students who were in the Title 1 program because they had difficulties in understanding math concepts. It made me have to rethink concepts that were simple for me to understand in order to explain them to others in a way that they could understand. When I started college I had set out to become a math teacher, but along the way changed my direction to behavioral sciences because I lost all my faith in the public education system. Now I homeschool my daughter and I am still trying to work on expressing math concepts in various ways to help her and her friends truly understand the nature of numbers. The thing that I love about math is that it is always right or wrong, there is no in between, there is no uncertainty or personal interpretation.
All the Best -
Gina
"math is that it is always right or wrong, there is no in between, there is no uncertainty or personal interpretation." Very true.
My experiences in school were varied. I liked math but I'm not a mathematician. The teachers were varied. In high school calculus, I had the football coach as our calculus instructor, he had some opinions about how girls would not do as well in his class as the boys ( he was a neanderthal like Larry Summers).
Although I wasn't particularly gifted in calculus I resolved to excell in his class as a matter of principle. At college I took higher level calculus classes for engineering students. One summer, a PhD student who taught
our class had an extremely heavy Beijing accent (many of the American students complained that they couldn't understand what was going on bc of this) but he knew his material and despite his accent, his mastery of English
was better than the native-borns---and in math there is a wrong or right answer, and many ways to arrive at those to conclusions--our instructor communicated the principles clearly (I thought).
Today, I will tell you honestly that I don't really remember anything from those higher math classes, vaguely do I remember differentials. But I still use algebra to problem solve basic queries that life poses.
I also volunteer at my daughter's elementary as math helper for kids who are behind. I've noticed that not all kids like the reasoning behind THE NEW MATH (designed at the University of Chicago). My daughter hasn't been in
my group, she gets the New Math method. But as a volunteer who helps those who don't take to the New Math, I myself frankly don't know why problems are posed in such an unstraightforward manner. If I try to explain things in a
more basic (Old School) fashion (the way I was taught), the kids who don't get the New Math way, understand concepts better and feel more confident in their skills at solving problems.
So, I'm wondering, should there be more than one way of teaching kids math in elementary school so that kids aren't negatively effected by it?
I also agree with Seema that there is "always a right or wrong" answer, and yet there are many ways to get to a solution (the right answer) though.
Theresa
Back again,
I live in Syria, and I have an engineering degree from France in applied maths and computer science, and a phd in CS.
I make a living from teaching undergraduate and graduate students applied maths and CS. I always loved maths and things usually seemed to come naturally to me.
I believe that there are brains that are more abstraction oriented than others. for example I always loved maths but not physics. I used to make good achievements in all science of the engineer when I succeeded to deal with problems mathematically, but I was not able to get the feeling of it as a physical problem.
My first son is like me rather abstract and not handy at all.
I am fascinated at seeing him making analysis of mathematical situations and giving the answers very naturally.
I wonder if maths mania is hereditary...
Oula
Hello, Im Jesus from Caracas Venezuela. Im an System Engineering Student already in the last semester, and ive been closely connected trough the carrer to maths, wich i find amazing, fun, and challenging. Ive learned about electric systems, control systems, digital systems, communication systems, and in every case, maths is like a totally different world depending on the subject.
Maths feels great, because 2+2 will always be 4, always, and, if you do things right, step by step, thinking not in the outcome, but in the fun of doing the job, everything will come out well :D. For me Fourier stuff is a tricky matter, at college (UNEXPO-LCM) there is a lot to study (7 to 10 differents courses every semester) and not too many time available to dedicate to this particularly challenging maths area.
Im not the venezuelan's Einstein but maths haven't been specially difficult for me, in fact i like them :D. My parents never said to me what was supposed to be hard and what was supposed to be easy, and this could be the main helper in my case.
But for some people around me is like a crazy forest full of monsters, witches, lions, wardrobes and stuff (pun intended :D), maybe for social pressure, people tends to think that knowing your math is like being a nerd and you will have no life, no girl , etc, or maybe because most people around them fear maths.
This is one of the main reasons of my interest in this course, to see differents points of view about this matter and maybe try to learn to help people more effectively with their math learning, while sharing and learning with math loving people :D
And yes, Challenging but fun :D
I wanted to post my original but I rewrote it.
Math along with science was always the first subject I would do homework for. It was also the one I would spend the longest time on when I couldn't solve a problem. Growing up I liked math a lot. One of my struggles in math classes was how the topics were approached and taught. As a result I felt that my skills in math were not adequate. Due to this I went on to get science degree which I enjoyed. After graduating, I took several math courses and am now pursuing a M.S. in Statistics.
The math courses I enjoyed and have the best understanding were from teachers/professors that used multiple learning techniques such as hands on activity. They took time to bring in news/examples that apply in today's world. They showed and allowed alternative methods to solving problems. Encouraged sharing of tips and tricks to solving math problems.
In math each problem is unique and this also applies to students. Just as there can be different methods to solving a problem, there are many methods to teaching math. I believe that many of these are not being actively used and being applied to students. I look forward to sharing and learning more about how people learn math.
Both my parents are engineers, and my mom was also active in science education. My best math experiences as a child were problem-solving, Olympiads, and projects, and as a grown-up helping others learn mathematics.
My personal difficulties include too-short memory span, having low productivity on emotional down time, mediocre "processing speed" and the overall "hardware" part of the intelligence. For all that, I am an excellent problem-solver. In some ways, my difficulties help me to be a better educator, sharing the system of tools I developed to do what I want to do in life.
Very interesting. It seems you work in field of education. In fact I discovered with time and experience in undergraduate education,that we have to look to ourselves while thinking about a specific point, and try to transmit this vision to our students to help them think themselves.
I don't mean that I force them to think like me but I try to give them an example..
Good point, Oula. Sharing one example (of my thoughts and errors) often helps students talk through their own thinking. In a group, this habit of sharing can provide multiple examples of different ways of thinking.
This sometimes happens in programming communities online, as well.
I was involved in a research project that showed that one of the biggest problems in math and science education was that teachers would show the problem-solving techniques to a problem, but never explained the thinking behind the techniques. So students memorize a bunch of equations, and then were just guessing what equation to use, or which numbers to stick into which variables in the equations, because their teachers had never articulated why these equations worked (presumably because they thought that was obvious).
So I would agree that, as a teacher, sharing our thoughts, opinions, mistakes, etc., are critical to student understanding, particularly in disciplines like math.
I failed math at age 16 and repeated a year of school. I did have some ideas on how to do math and get the right answer, yet wouldn't get full marks as I'd do it in fewer steps.
Without the ability to show the 'correct workings' I wouldn't get full marks. That didn't happen often yet at least it made me believe there are different ways to get the same correct answer.
Five years later I broke my back and faced the very real prospect of never walking again. So I promised to make math easier if I could walk again and go onto have children. I can and did, so for the last 27 years I've been working on making math easier for children.
So at the moment I'm just documenting the Australian Numerals Number System, which is simpler than what we know now. It's like an upgrade to numbers from DOS to Windows 7 yet for numbers.
Therefore I'm interested to learn about the psychology of learning math as most of my thinking has been about learning styles and brain models.
So I'm here to learn and to share whatever is useful to others.
Jonathan