SoylentNews

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

posted by mrpg on Monday November 05 2018, @02:00AM   
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

• Re:I've observed it (Score: 2) by acid andy on Tuesday November 06 2018, @04:56PM

  by acid andy (1683) on Tuesday November 06 2018, @04:56PM (#758577) Homepage Journal

  Most do not understand or "get" (came to realize) the fundamentals of math...

  That's not the problem for me.

  Don't you see math as computer program too?

  More or less, yes.

  It is taught to slow and disjointed... it was assumed *ALL* will see the patterns.

  The problem for me is when the teachers get lazy / sloppy and start skipping over steps in those patterns. Disjointed? Yep. Assume? Yep. I don't know about "too slow" though. I think part of the reason they skip over steps is to save time and go faster.

  --
  Master of the science of the art of the science of art.

  Parent

  Starting Score:	1		point
  Karma-Bonus Modifier		+1
  Total Score:		2