Scared Of Math

My college professor said, "Math is not hard, as long as you reconize the patterns in the sand".

Even though math did not come easy for me, I loved it.

THAT is a darned good description, and a better way of understanding a persons cognization of mathematical concepts than relating it to an IQ measurement.

Yes, he was also in the reserves, We called him Colonel.

And when he was lecturing about every shape or movement has a mathematical equation to it, he like to use mortar ballistics and such for examples.

One of the students fell a sleep as he was lecturing, he demonstrated what a parabolic curve looked like by throwing an chalkboard eraser at the student.

Everyone stay alert. Because he was very accurate.

"...research shows that female elementary school teachers often transmit their math anxiety to their female students."

I don't understand:

1. Why elementary school teachers (male or female) would have any anxiety about the math they teach. It's elementary math, not advanced calculus, and they've got the teacher's guide book. I have to wonder if they are really qualified to be teachers if they have that level of anxiety.

2. Why there is a greater chance of transmitting math anxiety female-teacher-to-female-student than female-teacher-to-male-student. Does this mean that, even at a very early age, boys are already adept at math? Other stories I've seen imply this separation between the sexes in math ability doesn't occur until high school.

3. Why there isn't the same level of concern for verbal or social anxiety among boys. I see lots of stories about, and references to, studies that have been done about female math anxiety, but I don't recall seeing equivalent numbers of stories or studies about problems boys are facing.

Re 1.
C'mon, plenty of elementary (primary) school teachers are teaching a broad base of subject matter some of which may not be their speciality.
They are sometimes on shakey ground and can be caught out by left field question or some kid who does his long division a different way.
I like the Simpsons episode where Bart is asked if he knows long divison. He replies
"I know of long division"
Del

Exactly. The transmission is subliminal, unconsciously using the ol' NPL techniques. I've been taught by senior (high) school teachers who start off telling you it's going to be difficult, and darn it, it is. In the UK, most primary teachers are female, so there will be scant info on the effects of male teachers. Do boys take less notice of the emotional content of a female adult's communication? BTW from 7 - 11 yo, my teachers were all male. I found my 90% female high school quite odd.

I was immune to this at primary school, since I could already do most basic maths tasks, up to fractions and percentages. Dividing 3 or 4 digit numbers into huge strings of digits was my idea of fun!

The best piece of advice I was given was by one of those men when he taught the "paying back" method of subtraction, whilst I was comfortable with the "borrowing" method. I kinda ignored the lessons and did the sums, then asked afterwards why his worked. He showed me, and then said, "But if you understand your way, just you carry on using it. There is always more than one way to get to the answer." Applies not just to maths!

I think the biggest help to all children is to approach each subject and topic with a Bob the Builder* attitude: Can we do it? Yes we can.

.

*He was saying it long before Two-Term Obama

Me? I have always had fun with math problems. My daughter? Not so much. Her favorite math song is "Math Suks" by Jimmy Buffet.

The thing that I noticed while tutoring her, was that when she first came across a new problem, it automatically took on the proportions of Mount Everest, in her mind. The biggest problem in teaching her how to solve those problems, was getting her to do each individual step, then write down the results like a fresh problem before continuing to the next step. She already knew the operations (add, sub, mul, div), she already knew about associative and distributive properties, she just needed to put blinders on, and solve each step individually. When she finally mastered that, she passed her senior year algebra test the first time around.

Maths is hard!

It involves learning new and complicated techniques, deeply thinking about problems and developing technical skills and accuracy. That's why it''s such a good predictor of success in every other academic field.

Most people understand that artistic, literary or sporting success requires hard work but, for some unknown reason, they expect Maths to just fall into their lap.

Most modern secondary school maths exams are designed so you'll pass if you know the basics, but if you don't then it's impossible to bluff your way through, unlike most humanities subjects.

Personally, I stopped getting nervous when I started doing the work.

Maths is hard!

Calculus comes from the latin word for pebble. Rocks are hard, so why shouldn't math be?

That's why it''s such a good predictor of success in every other academic field.
WALOOB
Plenty of people who excel in a particular field are hopeless at maths.
Mind it depends on how you define maths and an ability therein.
I consider myself poor at maths, but then most people would probably think I was fairly good...
Most people don't know the difference between Maths and Arithmetic.
Even on so called scientific programs they butcher statistics...
On a program the other day they said that shuffling a pack of cards was certain to produce a sequence which has never occurred before in the history of the universe... total bilge, as the next shuffle could produce an idential sequence, extremely unlikely, but possible. And if the quality of your product depended on it not happening, you could be sure it would!
Whoops, rambled off a bit there.... baaaaad kitty
Del

I didn't say it's the only way to be a success.

We try to teach our kids at an early age their numbers and letters. Then to read some before they enter school. Most of that is recognition. Math takes some reasoning.

I thank my father that was his gift to me. He would give me math problems to do when he came home from work. A game that I soon learned to excel at. By the time I started school I could add, subtract, multiply and divided.

So I have no anxiety about doing math. Maybe some frustration when I'm not getting the answer I want.

"Maybe some frustration when I'm not getting the answer I want."

Then you should be a scientist!

I remember struggling through calculus in college. I asked my prof how he knew he had the right answer. His answer was "You just know it, Steve. You feel it." I could design columns, roofs, walls and slabs all day long with confidence, but give me a calculus problem and I couldn't "feel" it.

Some math makes me nervous, when it is complicated or when it is important to get it right quickly. So I check myself over and over, and sometimes that hurt my tests because I ran out of time. But as I gain experience I get less nervous.

I never get scared enough not to attempt to figure out a math problem. But I ran into scared students when I taught at a business school (EET equivalent program). Some students just shut down and refused to try, convinced that they couldn't do it. By breaking equations into pieces and with encouragement I could get most of them over it. You could see new self-confidence grow in some of them. But a few stubbornly stayed closed, and they flunked out. It was a shame when that happened, because every one of those flunk-outs had demonstrated to me that they could become successful electronic techs (outside of the math). But we can't be good at everything, so if you can't do something don't dwell on that failure - find what you are good at and pursue that.