Math Mindset Check- up
10:29 AM
Every week for our online component of our mathematics class, we are required to watch a module on a designated topic and post our ideas and thoughts afterwards about it. This weeks topic was about Math Mindset and the ideas we create when we have negative feelings towards a subject, in this case Mathematics.
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This week in class, our professor showed us another card trick and had placed us in groups to work together to solve the trick. The card trick brought us into a discussion about factoring which in a simple term is finding what to multiply together to get an expression.
I am a visual learner, but as our teacher was attempting to go through the algebraic expression, I became very frustrated and confused. I was getting overwhelmed with the numbers and letters that needed to work together in order to solve the equation and I gave up.
My teacher must have sensed that I was upset, because she looked at me and asked me if I understood and you know what I said?
"NO, I don't understand. I am not a math person!!"
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I couldn't believe that sentence came out of my mouth after we just had a wonderful discussion the week before about how we are all capable math learners and no one is born "being/not being a math person."
I felt like a chump. I knew I disappointed my professor and I instantly felt awful.
That night, I went home to complete my module and I decided to pick this video to watch:
The video explains that struggling, in any subject helps your brain grow. Instead of getting nervous or anxious that you don't understand right away, your brain is trying to help you understand the concept using many different strategies. However, what ends up happening, is that we end up sending negative messages to our brain which change the perception of how we think about ourselves which blocks our brain from reaching its fullest potential.
Through reflection of this video, I realized that during my professors lesson I was my worst critic for attempting to learn the concept she was teaching us. This reflection helped me understand as a future educator how my students might feel in a math class when they felt they have exhausted all their opportunities and strategies to learn a new concept in math. Students need to know that their teachers believe in them and its okay if they don't get a perfect score or understand a concept in the first five minutes of a lesson. Students also need to remember to give themselves positive messages of encouragement when they are struggling to help keep a growth mindset.
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Teachers also have many resources to help students reach their full potential in learning mathematics.
An Ontario document entitled: Paying Attention to Mathematics Education , outlines an important foundational principal which is Focus on Mathematics.
The document states that "All educators – classroom teachers, early childhood educators, school principals and other instructional
leaders in the education system – use a variety of critical thinking and problem-solving strategies to
engage all students in making connections between content and process as they work toward a thorough
understanding of mathematics." (p.4). This involves encouraging multiple approaches for learning and actively doing mathematics, planning learning tasks and opportunities through differentiated instruction and fostering questioning – teacher to student, student to student, student to teacher – so that all
can see the value in mathematics learning.
By highlighting a positive approach to a focus on mathematics this will minimize "the likelihood of students developing mathematical misconceptions.”
With that being said, I would like to take a minute to formally apologize to my professor for the positive display of my negative math mindset and promise to have a more positive outlook moving forward in this class while learning new strategies and tools for learners like myself!
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Until next week! :)
2 comments
Ally, I loved reading your post! It is inspiring to see the progress you made, and your self-reflection is just the kind of thing that will make you an amazing teacher! I watched the same video as you and also found it very inspiring.
ReplyDeleteI love that you took the time to realize that you displayed a fixed mindset in class this past week. Admitting is the first step to overcoming! Do you think that there were aspects of the lesson that made you more frustrated than you would usually be in class? Maybe this isn't entirely a negative experience because now you know what frustrates you as a learner and you can take that knowledge with you as an educator to students who may struggle with math as well.
ReplyDelete