|
We would like to help your students develop a passion for mathematics.
Research shows:
By about age 12, students who feel threatened by mathematics start to avoid math courses, do poorly in the few math classes they do take, and earn low scores on math-achievement tests. Some scientists have theorized that kids having little math aptitude in the first place justifiably dread grappling with numbers. People's intrusive worries about math temporarily disrupt mental processes needed for doing arithmetic and drag down math competence, report Mark H. Ashcraft and Elizabeth P. Kirk, both psychologists at Cleveland (Ohio) State University. Math anxiety makes it difficult to hold new information in mind while simultaneously manipulating it. Psychologists regard this capacity, known as working memory, as crucial for dealing with numbers. "Math anxiety soaks up working-memory resources and makes it harder to learn mathematics, probably beginning in middle school," Ashcraft says.
|
Simply providing students with mathematical facts is inadequate. By changing their psychology towards mathematics, their learning rate will grow exponentially.
We often encounter students who have the knowledge, but are unable to apply it because they cannot recognize connections between concepts. Clearly chaining mathematical concepts together will allow students to appreciate simple ideas as part of a more complex structure.
|
