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Think You're Bad at Math? You May Suffer From 'Math Trauma'

posted by mrpg on Monday November 05 2018, @02:00AM   Printer-friendly
from the pi≈3 dept.

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for chromas

Think you're bad at math? You may suffer from 'math trauma'

I teach people how to teach math, and I've been working in this field for 30 years. Across those decades, I've met many people who suffer from varying degrees of math trauma – a form of debilitating mental shutdown when it comes to doing mathematics.

When people share their stories with me, there are common themes. These include someone telling them they were "not good at math," panicking over timed math tests, or getting stuck on some math topic and struggling to move past it. The topics can be as broad as fractions or an entire class, such as Algebra or Geometry.

[...] One of the biggest challenges U.S. math educators face is helping the large number of elementary teachers who are dealing with math trauma. Imagine being tasked with teaching children mathematics when it is one of your greatest personal fears.

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 05 2018, @02:20AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 05 2018, @02:20AM (#757815)

    https://www.nctm.org/Classroom-Resources/Illuminations/Interactives/Primary-Krypto/ [nctm.org] Play Krypto. fun game and gets you out of math issues. Played with my daughters starting at age of 4, using dice to limit numbers. Mode rule slightly... I had to come up with 3 solutions before they came up with one.

    Really helps to get fluid with math and numbers.

    PS: Daughters got degrees in Math, in 3 years of college. Now, where are those STEM jobs?

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  • (Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 05 2018, @02:56AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 05 2018, @02:56AM (#757829)

    When I was a kid, I used to love playing Number Crunchers on the school's Apple ][ computers. It was fun, but it also helped a lot with number sense and basic calculations.

    It's a shame that educational software is nowhere near as engaging as it was in the '80s and early '90s.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brvLpircQe4 [youtube.com]