How often have you heard someone say: “I’m just not a math person?”
People are reluctant to say they are illiterate but proud to share their low math identity.
We tend to think of math as a subject that’s accessible only to certain types of people. But that’s a false assumption, and it’s holding back achievement for far too many students. With the right instructional approach, everyone can learn and do math. There is no special “math gene” that naturally makes some people better at math than others.
Students come into school with differing levels of math preparation. Some have parents or guardians who have introduced them to foundational concepts and skills.
Some have had no exposure. The well-prepared students perform better at the outset of K-12 learning and the underprepared students struggle to keep up. Thus begins the fallacy that some students are “math people” and some are not.
The truth is that our brains, when given the right pushes, develop synapses that connect neurons together, allowing them to communicate and make meaning out of sounds and symbols. Imagine a synapse as a train station connecting different tracks. And our brains have elasticity, meaning that they are not stuck in a finite state. This neuroplasticity guarantees our lifelong ability to develop new synapses that keep our brains growing, allowing us to make new connections and develop new skills.
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At its core, math is about identifying patterns, then generalizing those patterns and applying them to solve new problems. This is a skill that anyone can learn. It’s also an ability that is becoming more critical in a world with increasingly complex challenges.
Learning math helps students become logical thinkers and analytical problem solvers. It helps students function in their day-to-day lives and opens up options and career paths.
However, the way math has traditionally been taught in classrooms — as a fixed discipline, with right and wrong answers — has kept too many students from realizing these benefits. Many classroom environments present math with a greater emphasis on problems that need to be solved than on building conceptual understanding.
In my own classroom I initially leaned more toward the procedural than the conceptual. I did not learn until much later in my educational career about conceptual teaching strategies and supports.
But if you look at the work of mathematicians, they aren’t just solving rote problems all day. They’re doing deep thinking. They’re reasoning. They’re critiquing ideas and working together collaboratively to solve problems. They’re working through the language of math.
Comprehension is expected of a good reader, as well as fluency and accuracy, so why not in math? We focus on fluency and accuracy without giving ample time to ensuring that students comprehend foundational mathematical concepts.
Numbers and formulas don’t make much sense when students don’t understand what they mean. Math is a language that builds on itself. Not understanding the foundations of math is like not understanding the structure of a language.
Related: Why schools are teaching math word problems all wrong
In addition to focusing on comprehension, we also need to change our approach to math instruction to make it more open, welcoming and inclusive of all students. Now, this is easier said than done when considering the conditions our educators teach in. The students who are most often left behind by our rigid, rules-based approach to math instruction are those who are already marginalized. We need to prioritize making math instruction grade-level, engaging, affirming and meaningful to ensure that all students learn the language of math and can use it outside of the classroom.
Here are five things we can ask of ourselves and our educators to achieve this goal:
- Evaluate your own math identity. Think about how you experienced math growing up, and how you feel about math as an adult. This reflection will help you understand how you define success in your own classroom and where you might have biases or blind spots.
- Ensure that you understand the content deeply. Knowing the concepts behind math formulas and procedures will help you make those concepts more accessible to students. If you anticipate where they might get stuck in a lesson, you can be prepared with ideas for navigating those barriers.
- Encourage creative and collaborative problem-solving. Math shouldn’t be about just memorizing formulas. Giving students the opportunity to figure out a process for themselves and talk through their reasoning helps them become adept at finding creative ways to solve problems. It can even enlighten other students who are struggling.
- Give students a voice. The teacher and textbook aren’t the sole authorities in the classroom. Listen to student ideas and leverage their personal and cultural knowledge, both local and historical. For instance, if students are into soccer, use this knowledge as a bridge to learning math, tapping into their knowledge of the scoring statistics of various players to understand fractions and percentages.
- Plan collaboratively. Giving teachers common planning time to work together with their peers is critical because it helps broaden their perspectives and skill sets so that they can create multiple entry points for students to gain understanding of the material. When teachers come together, they’re exposed to new methods and ideas they might not be familiar with — ideas that can help make math more accessible for all students.
Once we reevaluate what it will take to teach all students while supporting our educators, we can truly seek justice in the details of teaching and learning.
Lacey Robinson is the president and CEO of UnboundEd, which works to empower educators to use evidence-informed, engaging, affirming and meaningful grade-level instruction to eliminate the predictability of student outcomes — so that all students succeed academically.
Contact the opinion editor at opinion@hechingerreport.org.
This story about teaching math was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Hechinger’s weekly newsletter.
