Ways To Help Change Student Opinion Towards Math.

Since the pandemic started, too many students have to been in attending school virtually. This has made it harder for them to learn and teachers have not been able to help students develop a positive attitude towards math.  In addition, since students have gaps in their foundational knowledge, they display avoidance behavior to get out of doing the work.

One of the easiest ways to help students change their attitude so it's more positive is simple.  If the teachers attitude is positive towards math, it can spill over to students.  In this case, the teacher is providing the positive example for many students since parents have been providing a more negative attitude towards math their whole life. 

Instead of telling students they will need to learn math for their future, show them how they might use the math in their lives.  If you have students who talk about building their own house, show how the math you are teaching applies.  If your student wants to be a mechanic, show them how math makes their job easier.  If they want to be say an engineer, show them how the math they are taking now, will help them in college.

Find activities and projects that excite them.  Let their excitement help them find ways to solve the assigned problem. As they finish these activities or projects, they are building their confidence and ability to do math.  The project might be designing their dream house and figuring out how much it costs to finish, or planning their dream trip which will include an itinerary and budget. 

This is important: teach your students how to learn.  Most of the time, students go through their whole educational life without learning.  They don't know how to take notes, study, or apply what they've learned. If they don't have these skills, we have to take time to teach students to do them.  Once they've learned these skills, they need to practice them. 

In addition, it is necessary to set things up so they can be successful in math.  I don't mean "give" them the good grades but set up a framework that allows students to become successful.  For instance, on Friday's I provide time for students to correct previous work and finish work they didn't get done.  This way, they have the opportunity to finish everything and get better grades than they are used to.  Furthermore, it helps students who take a bit longer to do the work, a chance to keep up and succeed.

Take time to show students that there is seldom only "one" way to do a math problem.  Encourage them to explore other methods so that they find one that works for them.  When I teach binomial multiplication, I teach 5 ways and one of the methods uses a pictorial representation.  One of the methods relies on the standard vertical multiplication form and another turns it into two distributive problems.  My students usually find one that works for them.

Encourage collaboration between students.  If one grouping does not work, move students around until you find groups that work well.  In addition, encourage students to "teach" each other since peer tutoring is a powerful tool.  Another plus with this method is that the student doing the "tutoring" gains pride when they are able to explain it to another and it helps students improve their communication skills.

Finally, if you have students who are competitive, divide them into teams so they can "complete" against each other.  This works with students who are intrinsically motivated and want to "win".  No matter what suggestions we read, we have to remember that nothing changes instantly and it will take time.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.