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I used to think I was bad at math, and it always was an area of struggle for me. But it turns out I was never really as bad as I thought. As I got older, I learned a couple of things about my math learning:
1) I am a global learner. If you try to hand me detail after detail without explaining the theory, or the WHY, I feel like I’m going through the grocery store with no cart. Without a cart to put things in, there really is only so much I can carry in my arms before I start to drop some of it. The explanation of, or understanding of, the overall point has to come first for me, or the details just don’t sink in. But if I have a solid cart, I can understand and retain almost anything.
2) There are some things your brain just needs to be ready for. I really think a big part of the reason that I got my only “F” in Algebra I when I was 15, but ended up holding study sessions with other students in my college math class was simply that I cognitively matured. It was, admittedly, a math class for non-science majors, but still, making very high A’s on every test and being able to explain the concepts to other students in that class was a big improvement for me.
3) I really truly do not think in numbers or symbols. When I read a number in a text I naturally do not attend to the specific number in it, but usually glean the point from the context of the surrounding words. Example: “75 million Americans suffer from…” will translate into, initially, “Freaking lots of Americans suffer from…” If the text is important enough, or if that doesn’t clear up my understanding, it will further translate to “A little less than a third of Americans suffer from…” or something similar. Numbers alone don’t make any sense to me.
4) Forumlas are even worse. The only forumulas that I understand are the ones that actually translate into sentences I understand. In other words, formulas to me are shorthand for sentences; sentences are not longhand for formulas. Hence, “Fifty two out of seventy equals x over a hundred,” makes sense because it means, “What percentage of students will be able to get the preferred green apples?” On the other hand, “A squared plus B squared equals C squared?” Whatever. I learned that it was called the “Pythagorean theorem” (isnt’ that right?) and that it has something to do with triangles. But what its purpose is I never did understand.
5) This preference for sentences is the reason I have to write the math out from the 52 over 70 = x over 100 problem every time. Even though I’ve done it tons of times and even if I’m doing it dozens of times in one sitting (like when helping kids figure out what they have to make on this test to pass, blah blah). I know lots of people can skip the first or even second step. I’ve seen people just say, “What’s 5200 divided by 70?” But I can’t pick up in the middle like that. Not ever. Skipping steps pulls the problem out of the regular sentence realm and turns it into raw numbers which I may have mentioned aren’t my thing. (To create this example, I had to write the formula on some scratch paper.)
Just thought you’d like to know how the other half thinks. Some of your students are bound to think the same way.
Math is pretty hard.
6 responses so far ↓
1 Tina Kubala // Oct 10, 2007 at 2:22 pm
The only thing I would add is this: The “math dumb” kids need you to spend the entire class doing problems on the blackboard. Do it over and over, then let me do it over and over.
I’m a “global learner” too. I took pre-algebra three times. The last time ’round, I had a great teacher who taught the formulas translated to English and gave lots of examples. I then successfully took Algebra and Geometry.
I also can solve the math of “real life” with what I learned.
2 Taylor // Oct 10, 2007 at 6:36 pm
I know — doing it over and over — not talking about your husband, your dog, or your Texas A & M decorated room, like my Algebra II teacher did.
Thanks for the comment! Hope you come back.
3 WillieW // Oct 10, 2007 at 7:31 pm
“Has mental block where Maths concerned” was a great excuse to hang onto from my school report around age 11 or so, until I was in my early 20s. At that stage, I had to worry about whether or not I had enough money in my pocket to cover the grocery bill and started doing mental arithmetic as I went around the supermarket with my trolley. I’d rather do maths than be embarrassed at the checkout. Wonder of wonders, I could count! “Has teacher with little imagination with problem areas” might have been a more accurate report.
4 dirt clustit // Oct 11, 2007 at 1:28 pm
Can you imagine what school would be like if in kinder garden after learning the social standards like respect, not judge, and the golden rule…specialists trained to help the student identify what ways their mind best learns? Before any time is wasted being taught in a manner that gets lost in translation? While the child’s mind’s is still undecided whether or not school is a positive place to be? Before the next Math whiz kid never becomes that because school is a place where her/his self esteem is tore down in stead of built up with knowledge.
There are general contractors who never got a high school diploma that can add fractions in their head, write out and solve trigonometry equations. These same people may not be able to pass ANY math class taught in our public schools because no time is taken to determine how this person is able to learn.
I mean, doesn’t it make sense? How many different major strategies could there be to teach? What if there were just two different class for the major subjects?
1)straight listed facts for those who have photographic memories. for those who don’t need to know how or why the principal lesson works
2)the hands on, or visual, less of the mind numbing meaningless numbers that are the root of why a lesson makes no sense and instead uses real life examples so that kids do not have to waste their time. So that do not waste their lives in a system that de-constructs what little self worth they feel.
Kids need to feel the belong, especially when they don’t get that form their family.
Isolation is the enemy. The product of the child being forced to learn in ways she/he cannot.
Learning not to ask questions. Learning the overworked underpaid teachers get frustrated when their questions seemingly halt the classes momentum.
5 Taylor // Oct 11, 2007 at 7:54 pm
Teaching children to learn rather than *just* teaching content is the key to everything, I think. I completely agree.
6 dirt clustit // Oct 11, 2007 at 9:30 pm
Just so you know, I am the analytical type that can be thrown just facts. Teacher Taylor, is there a key or flow chart on line that explains how to properly read the important message when there are pages of filler?
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