The Problem with Maths

Mathematics always came naturally to me. I enjoyed it and flourished when learning it. I'm naturally competitive and as most children tend to do, I benchmarked myself against my classmates. So, when I received a good score in a mock maths exam, I'd receive the ego feedback that I craved and it would spur me on – you are smart, you can do this. Maths work provided me with an opportunity to attain a new high score, to attain an objective piece of evidence that I was an 'achiever'.

As I’ve grown up, I've since shook off this view. However, I've realised that to this day, beliefs around maths ability still shape the career prospects of individuals and their perceptions of intelligence. I studied Mathematics at University and whenever I tell people, a typical response is either "Wow you studied maths, you must be smart", or, "Oh I hate maths, I don't know how you studied it". Is there any other subject that generates such acute feelings? It is clear that how maths is taught within classrooms and perceived by students is a problem we still need to overcome.

"Mary has £40, an apple costs 20p. How many apples can she buy?"

I'm not sure why I'd ever need to buy 200 apples, so I’m equally unsure as to how we can expect people to connect to this when learning. Context is a function of experiences; students are not experiencing maths; they are just trying to survive it.

I only succeeded in school maths because I could connect to the competitive aspect of succeeding in school - something I attained through a good education. If I didn't already have that core drive, I think I'd have been as lost within the subject as the next person.

Indeed, I studied mathematics at university, but mostly because of the career prospects and my understanding that I was 'good at maths'. It took me until university to actually connect to the subject. I feel rather uncomfortable now as I look back, realising that I was actually brilliant at succeeding at a disconnected, algorithmic and fixed methodical subset of maths. I see now how it was a subject which was un-relatable for most.

Bad messaging

Historically, the narrative surrounding maths has often been that it is for 'nerds' and 'not for girls'. You only need to watch daytime children's television to witness the negative messaging around maths. The way children are exposed to the subject from their parents or teachers is also of concern. If parents talk about maths as something challenging and unfamiliar, children can internalise that. It is no wonder that so many children in schools disengage from maths and believe they cannot do well - maths is special in this way.

A significant contribution to a damaging maths education, is the belief that some people have ‘the maths gift', while others do not. Researchers have found that while up to 20% of the population suffer from ‘mathematics anxiety’, having this anxiety doesn't mean you are bad at maths. It's the anxiety surrounding maths that induces the struggle. Pressure to solve problems quickly dials up stress and worry, along with the self-doubt, eating up the working memory required to solve maths problems. People then struggle with basic maths skills, like arithmetic, that they've otherwise mastered.

Maths makes you money

The idea that ‘people that can do maths are the most intelligent’ is particularly crushing for those that do not succeed in the subject. We need to dispel this myth. The maths syllabus has constructed a subject to which people either believe they are 'smart' if they succeed in it, have 'dyscalculia', or in some cases believe they are 'unintelligent', if they do not succeed. Students have such strong and negative ideas about maths. There is little belief that one’s mathematical potential can grow.

In many cases, people have been traumatised by maths - fuelled by incorrect beliefs between maths and intelligence. Indeed, the belief that maths and intelligence are closely related is so widespread among people that it has permeated the UK and U.S., with career prospects and earning potential positively correlated with achievement in mathematics. Students taking A-level maths courses in high school are predicted to have a salary increase of 19.5% 10 years after high school, relative to their peers.

The correct answer is actually wrong

A big factor in misleading mindset messages is the praise accustomed with the 'correct answer'. I always used to think I was great at maths, if the teacher asked a question I would be one of the first to put my hand up and answer correctly. My teacher would praise me; this would be relayed at 'parent's evening', and they would let my parents know I was 'smart'. My ability to recall arbitrary facts and formulas was all I needed to do to be branded as 'smart'. Great news? Maybe not.

The early messages I received, as is the same for many others, led me to do the upmost to ensure myself and my teachers preserved this belief. This included not taking risks or making mistakes. Not putting myself in a position that could end up with me being 'wrong' and shattering this belief that I was 'smart'. Of course, why would I think differently? My whole life I've associated the correct answer with intelligence.

When you play the Game of Math, you are either right or wrong

People will say that maths is a subject of right and wrong answers, this is incorrect. Despite this, the way in which it is taught within the UK school curriculum, particularly high school, has nurtured this belief. Our classrooms do little to reward people for ideas and trying new things, they only seek the correct answers. There is no middle ground. With this in mind, it's unsurprising that individuals retract engagement in the maths classroom when their answer is either going to be 'right' or 'wrong' - and when being correct fuels beliefs around intelligence, it's a nasty concoction.

The wrong answer requires praise

‘Successful entrepreneurs make more mistakes than unsuccessful ones - the more tries you take, the better chance you have at succeeding.’

It is indeed the testing culture that fosters the belief that mathematics is about doing well on tests, which in turn channels negative perceptions of mistakes. If people are going to feel more comfortable with maths, then we need to encourage mistakes. As cliché as it is, mistakes are a significant part of learning, if not the most.

Science has gone one step further to prove how important making mistakes is. Psychologist Jason Moser studied the neural mechanisms that operate in people’s brains when they make mistakes. Moser and his group found something fascinating. When we make a mistake, synapses fire. A synapse is an electrical signal that moves between parts of the brain when learning occurs. The recent neurological research on the brain and mistakes is hugely important for maths teachers and parents. Mistakes are not only opportunities for learning, as students consider mistakes, but also brain growth. Understanding the power of mistakes is critical, as children and adults everywhere often feel terrible when they make a mistake in maths. They think it means they are not a maths person, because they have been brought up in a testing culture, in which mistakes are not valued - or worse, they are punished. It's the duty of educators to not just praise mistakes, but explain why they're important.

Fixed mindsets and floored potential

Everybody has a mindset, a core belief about how they learn. People with a ‘growth mindset’ are those that believe intelligence increases with hard work. Those with a ‘fixed mindset’ believe you can learn things, but you can’t change your intelligence. When people begin to change their mindset and believe they can achieve at a high level, they change their learning pathways and they actually can achieve at a high level.

Research shows that maths ability is not fixed. You wouldn’t believe that you’re “naturally good at history” or that you “don’t have the geography gift”. So why is it different with maths? When students get in their heads the idea that they cannot do maths, they tend to maintain that negative relationship with maths throughout their whole life.

Bryant Tuition - The growth mindset

Bryant Tuition is a private maths tuition service provider that specialises in nurturing the growth mindset, the mindset that everybody can grow intellectually and that no one is fixed in cognitive performance. Their maths tutors are all students from the world’s leading mathematical institutions, and through their training at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education, they have a thorough understanding of the techniques needed to motivate and grow the mathematical mindsets of their tutees. Their services are grounded on cultivating the five core mathematical life skills:

1. Number – Nurturing the ability to act upon numbers flexibly within everyday life

2. Ratio – Cultivating the ability to budget, scale, and allocate resources successfully

3. Algebra – Understanding the language for describing a situation and generalising

4. Geometry – Improving visual ability and spatial understanding

5. Statistics – Understanding the likelihood of events, informing our ability to make decisions

Acknowledgement of the creative and interpretive nature of maths is required throughout life. Maths is a broad and multi-dimensional subject, that requires reasoning, creativity, connection making and interpretation of methods. Sadly, a lot of this is lost in the school curriculum. We are left with un-relatable testing with little space for creativity, exploration and critique - all of which a proper maths education should cultivate.