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The Forum > Article Comments > Mathematics anxiety > Comments

Mathematics anxiety : Comments

By John Eldridge, published 13/7/2009

Maths doesn't need to be so difficult to learn.

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You make some very good points, John. Although curricula are notoriously difficult to change,I suspect that we are now caught in a cultural bind: Generations of failure have produced a society that looks elsewhere for success- how many "celebrities" of any kind have a scientific background and how many of those would admit to their maths and science having anything to do with their success? For example, Al Franken, who recently won a protracted legal battle to become the 60th Democratic senator, is renowned for his time as a comedian, not as a maths graduate. How many TV series show mathematicians or scientists as anything other than nerds, as compared with their glamorous legal counterparts?

Add to this, the maths anxiety of parents that is conveyed to their children: eg "Jill/Jack is no good at maths- I guess she gets that from me- I was hopeless at maths". What is Jill/Jack to do? if they try to break out of the bind, then they are rejecting their parents. It's easier to live down to their expectations.

I think that maths and science phobia needs to be treated like obesity- public examples of success backed up by appropriate and accessible education.
Posted by Jedimaster, Monday, 13 July 2009 12:18:43 PM
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Most articles on education share the same fault. It is easy to tell teachers what their lessons lack, it is much harder to actually do better. Teachers do-not have the time to constantly come up with real world applications of content that are interesting and within the capabilities of the whole class. Until someone else actually collates a large collection of these problems, students will need to accept that occasionally being bored is part of getting an education.
Posted by benk, Monday, 13 July 2009 1:26:58 PM
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Mathematics at school is the very basic level for anyone to continue to most professions incl engineering, science, BComm etc. To reduce it any further would require extending the graduate degrees.

Further more the subject is an exercise in problem solving and logic which form the basis of rational thought, and anyone that comes away thinking it is simply the memorising of formulae to plug into problems has seriously missed the point.

To those that are competent at maths the subject is a wonderful revelation to natural world and many cite it as their favourite subject. For others it at least develops some degree of problem solving ability.

Finally for those that cannot stand it, the fall back is religion.
Posted by Shadow Minister, Monday, 13 July 2009 1:40:53 PM
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I agree with benk's first two sentences - diagree with the rest.
The article has me intrigued, but its short on detail and the mechanics to make it work.
I was merely adequate in mathematics and, as it entirely failed to excite my interest, I did no maths at all in upper high school.
However, as the author points out, there are several facsinating stories in maths - Pi is one, Infinity, might I also suggest Longitude is another - that many people (certainly I) would find interesting. However, it was not until adulthood that I came across these.
Benk, I refuse to accept that teachers honestly believe that it is no part of their job to try to make the material engaging for their students. Boredom is not an acceptable 'cost' of teaching.
In order for someone to teach, someone has to learn. As for teachers not having the time to make their lessons engaging - don't get me started!
Posted by J S Mill, Monday, 13 July 2009 2:36:56 PM
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I disagree Mill. I'm sick to death of this ideology that all learning must be entertaining. Children are brought up these days to believe that they must be entertained first in order for them to bother learning anything. That's why we have people lapping up 'infotainment', rather than actual information. That's also why we have Gen Y thinking every aspect of every job they do must be rewarding and entertaining.

It's a frivolous world when a child is taught they shouldn't have to learn unless Kermit the Frog is teaching them using song.
Posted by Houellebecq, Monday, 13 July 2009 3:04:42 PM
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DO NOT TRY TO MEMORISE THESE RESULTS only LEARN TO WORK THROGH THE RESULT YOURSELF.

Hello, the whole Coroneos styled math curriculum instills sheer phobia let alone anxiety.

Students need Mnemonics to overcome fear of math. Pure memory and mnemonics must be ENCOURAGED and students rewarded for new and exciting examples for sharing.

TWO quick examples:

Inverse trig:

BMaX-SOa: Integral 1/(B^2-a^2*X^2)^1/2 = (1/a)*sin-1(a/B*x)

Once you have one thing etched in your memory PERMANENTLY you are in a position to write it down, own it & play with it till you can prove the result in your own space.

Even NASA uses Mnemonics. Everything from LEM to ISS in the NASA lexicon is about acronyms as mnemonic devices.

And just to show it doesn't stop there:

The number of components in an n-'D'imensional Tensor of Rank R

CEEDEER(seedier): C = D^R

And believe it or not you are well into tensor analysis!

And don't forget all those Trig Integrals (you're not allowed to memorise) that bring students routinely to Catatonia:

TUNNELSEX, SECELSPOT(LT-(KewpiHX)), SinsOf Sex EndUpInCots etc

Mathematicians cannot exist without memorisation and mnemonics.

Stop telling students otherwise.
Posted by KAEP, Monday, 13 July 2009 4:16:24 PM
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Of course the benefits of training in math extend further than an ability to apply logic … I’d contend the absorption of the subject leads students to develop a greater intellect, than those who do not study math. If parents knew that and had seen the development of my son from a very average year 8 student into a Bachelor of Mathematics (Distinction), and understood the career prospects and rewards available to him, they’d be lined up bullying their children to enjoy math education. (Anyone know the average income of an Acturary?)
Jedimaster, it is possible to break the routine. I was useless at math. My son has a degree in applied math. I think his success had three aspects. I kept my limitations to myself, he enjoyed math and had teachers who encouraged his enjoyment.
I had great amusement hearing him tell a prospective employer he had ‘done’ math at uni for fun! He was serious!
Shadow Minister, my son also has an honors Degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering. He has assured me the learning of math in Engineering Degrees is very limited. He’s found Engineers use tables and references rather that calculate from first principles.

Generally I think Education entirely has an incorrect focus. It over the last couple of generations has switched to trying to teach kids how to do things rather than teaching them how to think!
I think this has been done with the mistaken object of encouraging children of lesser intellect or ability to compete more favourably with more intelligent students. I think a return to the tried and proven methods of a concentration on Math English Chemisty Physics and latin based languages would not only allow more intelligent students excel but would ensure a greater competency and general commonsense among the not so clever students.

But there again I'm only a parent, so what would I know.
Posted by keith, Monday, 13 July 2009 5:36:49 PM
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Almost every curriculum problem across the entire subject range taught in our high schools has been created by trying to make it all easier "for the students". One suspects the real goal is to make it easier for the teachers - who too often lack the subject mastery that alone makes it easy to explain things to a novice.

Eliminating math anxiety by eliminating the need to master math skills strikes me as somewhat like reducing the tension before a chess game by running a discourse on the history of chess, the biographies of famous chess players, and on the elegance with which the pieces are carved.
Posted by veritas, Monday, 13 July 2009 5:49:54 PM
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for those interested in this issue, i strongly recommend "lockhart's lament":

http://www.maa.org/devlin/devlin_03_08.html

http://www.maa.org/devlin/LockhartsLament.pdf

it fleshes out the kind of thing eldridge is on about.
Posted by bushbasher, Monday, 13 July 2009 6:42:53 PM
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I have been very successful at Mathematical studies both at school and University.
To suggest that my school Maths teachers had any part of my success is both laughable and insulting.
I found my Maths teachers to be boring, lazy and elitist.
My early teaching career was spent teaching Maths in Queensland state schools.
Any attempt to revamp Maths so that it sparked the interest of a majority of students was thwarted and undermined at every turn.
There was too much at stake for the entrenched, boring, lazy and elitist Maths teachers to let this happen.
Posted by The Observer, Tuesday, 14 July 2009 9:59:23 AM
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Elitist maths teacher? That's an oxymoron right? Boring and Lazy I'll give you though.

So I'm guessing you like the Kermit method of teaching. Kids shouldn't have to do anything unless it's fun and entertaining and teachers should make it so huh?

People like what they're good at. Trying to make things 'relevant' and 'interesting' and 'engaging' is a lowest common denominator solution.
Posted by Houellebecq, Tuesday, 14 July 2009 3:30:56 PM
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I ascribe to the "inspirational path to learning" rather than the "rote method", the "bored teacher method" or the "fun method".

Mathematics is an Art insofar as it is intricately woven with human ideas and expression and has tenuous direct links with the observable world.

Thanks bushbasher for posting the links to Lockhart's Lament. The observations regarding chemistry teaching without labs or art teaching without art creation is right on the money.

The idea of encouraging students to create their own maths is inspiring. Will they all get maths? Do they all paint masterpieces? That is not the point.

When I think back to my high school mathematical education, there were few memorable moments. The one that stood out is when a group of us disagreed with the teacher when he declared pi to be irrational. We spent lunchtime discussing it afterwards and inventing ways of showing he was wrong. We weren't successful of course, but we were engaged and involved in the process of creation and discovery.
Posted by Anthony, Sunday, 19 July 2009 1:32:35 PM
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