I am forever hearing, “I hate math!”, “Math is stupid.”, and “I’m never going to use this in the real-world.” and I went on a mission to find why students hate math so much. This is what I found.
It’s Difficult
Math is difficult, especially if you are not mathematically minded. Understanding this is key to helping someone that doesn’t understand. Get to the root of what they don’t understand by asking many questions. Once you can figure that out, then you can start building them and their confidence back up.
Don’t put them down for not understanding. Get on their level. Use your patience. Seeing a teacher being impatient with them is the last thing the students need.
Their Learning Style Doesn’t Fit the Teaching Style
There are several different learning styles for students, and for some, it is different than how the teacher learned it when they were in school. Therefore, the teacher’s teaching style is different than the learning style of the students in today’s world.
Let’s face it, technology is a big part of their world and it is changing how they learn. As teachers we need to be especially aware of how each student is learning and meet those needs.
Requires Practice
We’ve always heard it said that “Practice makes perfect”, and I believe this when it comes to math. Practice is highly important for learning math and if we could show them the best way for them to practice, then I think it would help them learn the math faster.
Speaking of “faster”, students sometimes think they need to instantly get the material and if they don’t, they are a failure. This is not the case.
Speaking from personal experience, I didn’t necessarily understand everything in my calculus class in high school, however, the rote memorization of how to do the problem combined with a lot of practice, allowed me to understand everything about 2 years later when I needed to apply it to modeling antibiotic resistance in a hospital setting using a system of differential equations.
Teach them that it is okay not to understand the first time they learn it. Keep encouraging them on and push through the material.
READ MORE: How to Prevent Cheating in a Math Classroom
Need Resilience
Some students are lacking resilience to be able to push through something that is difficult. It is almost like they have never been given a problem they didn’t know how to solve, and then they freak out.
Something that I do is have a “productive struggle” time. It is where I don’t answer any of their questions for 15-20 minutes. I make them go back to their notes, ask others, teach others, and research how to do the problem.
I feel like this teaches them a real-world skill of sometimes you will not have an immediate answer and will have to find it on your own or ask someone else.
They will HATE this and you have to be prepared for MAJOR resistance the first few times you do this, however, it is worth it. Productive struggle builds resilience, and it is a skill they can use at home and in the real-world.
Parental Influence
Parental influence can play a big deal in the life of a teenager. …”Well, I hated math in school, so don’t ask me how to do it.” Sometimes, I think, they associate their parents being bad at math, then so should they; however, that is not the case. I believe anyone can be good at math if they have the right mindset to really put in the effort.
READ MORE: How To Stay Motivated As A Teacher? Here Are My 7 Reasons Why
Missing Basic Skills
The last reason I think students hate math is that they are missing basic skills, and I’m not sure how we go about fixing that in our classrooms. It is not a part of our curriculum, but without it, we can’t teach to our highest potential.
Also, the students get frustrated when I tell them they are already supposed to know this particular material. How can we get around this? Most of the time we give them a calculator, but at what cost?
Another thing is that our TNReady tests have a non-calc part. We need to get them used to taking tests (or at least parts of tests) without a calculator so that they are capable of doing so on the EOC tests.
Make It Applicable
Students have a hard time seeing the bigger picture of where math can be applicable. I’m sure you’ve heard, “Where am I going to use this in real life?”
I think some students need to see where they can and how it is a building block to the next step to get to that bigger picture. Find out what the student(s) are interested in and show them how math was involved.
How Do We Get Students to Love Math Again?
What all this boils down to is having a positive impact on the students that hate math – make it fun and enjoyable – you just might be the person to change their life!
What ideas do you have to make math more fun and engaging, so that students learn to love math again?
