Emotions and Teaching Math

We all have those students, the ones who arrive in your math class, convinced they can't do math or don't try because they see no use for it.  They have a negative emotional connection with math which can slow down their learning.  There are ways to help students gain better emotional connections.

Remember, emotions help us think because they pull up memories we have associated emotions with.  The question is then, how do we take advantage of this in our classes.

One thing we are told is to make math fun by incorporating games and prizes but these are considered a quick fix.  What works better is to help students develop a sense of accomplishment by making math interesting, satisfying, and personally fulfilling.  There are some steps each teacher can take to change student dislike into appreciation and wonder.

First, rather than letting students see math as some sort of torture to be tolerated until the math requirement is met, we should explain why these math concepts matter.  Mathematics helps students think both theoretically and logically.  Furthermore, math helps the brain think abstractly which is a skill that can be used in so many different ways.  There is research that indicates students who study complex math topics tend to do better in life.

Second, give students problems where they see how math is used in real life.  If they see connections, they are more likely to participate.  Practical applications range from keep track of their finances, to how fast oil spreads on tissue paper which gives students a real life application of direct variation and understanding of how fast oil spills spread.  Find stories in the news where a need to understand math is important such as in a story on price fixing, or climbing interest rates.  If you have students read an article on climbing. interest rates before setting up a spread sheet to show how much an increase of one-eighth of a precedent can effect the overall amount of money paid on a lone.

Third, take time to discuss mathematicians who helped change the world or make changes to the world such as Pythagorus, Rene Descartes, or people like Alan Turing who helped break Axis codes and allowed the Allies to win the war.  For the sports minded, introduce them to Nate Silver who uses statistical analysis to predict winners in elections and Major League Baseball.

Finally, look at ways to decrease the stress students feel when learning new material or taking tests.  When introducing new material, always try to relate it to previously learned material such as when solving one and two step inequalities, we can related the processes back to solving one and two step equations.  Relating it back to previously learned material also helps students learn the same material better or even get it when they didn't get it the first time.

This is an introduction to the topic.  I will be exploring it in more detail as I have a few students who see absolutely no reason to learn math and do their best to disrupt instruction so others have difficulty learning.  I want ideas to counter this "If I don't want to learn math, why should you?"  Knowing how emotion impacts learning is my first step to countering this.

I am slowing down to three topics a week plus warm-ups on the weekend because of the number of sports events happening at school.  I have been helping out and will continue to do so but it is not leaving me as much time for me.  So the next time I add new material, will be on Wednesday.

Let me know what you think about today's topic, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.