17th August 2016 1:00
By Blue Tutors
In the UK, maths is the most feared subject taught in schools, but while maths anxiety is common, the condition known as dyscalculia affects less than 5% of the population to vary degrees. How do we encourage more children to stick with maths when in this increasingly knowledge based economy, “I’m just not good at maths” is no longer an option?
A new study on “The Neuroscience of Mathematical Cognition and Learning” explains that, although enhanced through formal teaching, numeracy is an innate skill. We evolved the ability to see patterns and recognising symmetry, and illiterate Amazonian tribes have been found to have a basic mathematical system of counting and equivalence without even the words to describe it. Numbers and maths are central to many parts of everyday life; in small everyday acts we perform hundreds of basic calculations, arithmetic and mathematical logic without even realising.
Despite its ubiquity, many people feel that they simply can’t think in a mathematical way. Professor Jo Boaler, professor of maths education at Stanford Graduate School of Education, has found that aversion to maths, for the most part, is a result of bad education and lack of confidence, and not a genuine lack of ability. It is how we teach it formally, with frequent testing and time pressure, which cause stress at the early stages of learning basic maths knowledge. This is causing a fear of maths before more abstract complex thinking and operations have even been introduced. One of the underpinning assumptions in our testing of mathematical ability is at the root of the problem; the culture of timed tests further compounds this problem as speed is not the best indication of ability. While speed in recalling arithmetic does free up time to do more complex tasks/thinking, not all mathematicians can do fast mental maths. What is more, memory recall is affected negatively under stress and the memorised maths facts cannot be remembered.
Research has found that it is the flexible use of numbers and not rote memorisation of mathematical facts that best correlates with aptitude and success in maths. Using the underpinning logic of how numbers work, an abstract skill, you can come up with ways of manipulating numbers to do arithmetic and solve without having to remember every possible combination. Professor Boaler calls this “number sense”. Her research found that higher-achieving students used number sense rather than rote memory far more than lower-achieving students. That is to say, they do not know more, but they can use their knowledge and numbers more flexibly.
Unfortunately, the emphasis on memorising times tables and rules makes people think that maths is about numbers and arithmetic; in reality this is only a tiny part of mathematics. In the same way that you do not need to be an expert speller to appreciate or even write a piece of literature, rapid recall of maths facts is not imperative to being good at maths as a whole. Maths is about making connections and uses a lot of different parts of the brain. The study revealed that learning in diverse ways and in different environments is the best way to do this. Much like any sport or learning an instrument, mindset and practice are key to success in maths, meaning making learning maths fun and not intimidating will help avoid the psychological barriers and fear prevent us from thinking logically. The other emphasis of the work is that we learn through using maths, not memorising it. Much like we learn words through using them in reading, writing and speaking, as opposed to memorising long lists. Using mathematics develops understanding of the relationships which can be generalised and extended to more complex problems.