Mathematics at GEC

Yes, in our Maths classrooms (or in any classroom), students are encouraged to try their Maths skills and participate in class discussions without any fear of making mistakes.  They are assured that they won’t be judged while their mistakes are respected, inspected and corrected.  On the contrary, alternate answers and approaches are also encouraged.  This helps them with overcoming the fear of Maths overall and also helps in promoting growth mindset.

Well, how can parents support their children in overcoming their fear of Maths?  I would like to highlight some key points of my reading from a blog, here, in this newsletter issue.

As the article says, first off:

Don’t let your Maths anxiety hold your kids back

Stanford University professor Jo Boaler and Rosemarie Truglio, the senior vice president of curriculum and content at Sesame Workshop, agree that we must never tell our kids "I'm bad at math," "I don't like math," or "I didn't do well in math at your age." "When kids get that message, their math achievement goes down immediately," Boaler says. "And that's shown in particular with mothers and daughters."

She adds: "You might have to fake it sometimes."

Talk about Math when you’re sharing everyday activities

To rephrase the content of the blog, what this means to parents of secondary school students is to practice using the mathematical language with their kids as much as possible.  This could be in any area including the calculations with money such as discounts, profit and loss, measurement such as area, perimeter, volume and their units, comparing unit prices while shopping, calculating the scores in sports such as footy points and cricket scores, ratios while cooking, speed of the car or directions while driving, or any other area that their kids are interested in.

Play Math – with board games, card games, puzzles, and more

Sudha Swaminathan, an early childhood education professor at Eastern Connecticut State University, says, "Research has shown that when parents just play, they're actually really, really good at pulling out these deep concepts from children — much better than even teachers,"

Go beyond right and wrong answers

Whether your kids are in preschool stacking blocks or in high school struggling with calculus, home should be a safe place where there's "no fear in making a mistake," says Truglio. "That's basically how children learn."

In a bigger sense, for parents with math anxiety, raising kids provides a chance for a do-over. You can try experiencing the world through their eyes: a world that's made of math and full of wonder.

Arivu Kumaran

Maths Learning Area Leader

References:

Kamenetz A, Turner C (2020) Math Anxiety Is Real. Here's How To Help Your Child Avoid It (Blog Post). Retrieved from: https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/56637/math-anxiety-is-real-heres-how-to-help-your-child-avoid-it