Maths Anxiety
- Thread starter Lissy
- Start date
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2005/04/03/1112489349388.html
I relate to that article. After all we are all wired differently.
I relate to that article. After all we are all wired differently.
Sim
Administrator
Unless there is a real learning difficulty happening (not maths related - but physiological), in my experience, it's nothing but attitude and confidence (basically, fear) that cause people to struggle with maths.
I have successfully taken C/D grade high school students who were failing maths and brought them up to at least B grade with minimal effort ... just takes a bit of time and patience to explain to them the "tricks" of maths and help them see the patterns. Adults who are keen to improve (have the right attitude) are just as easy, if you have the correct technique.
Most kids who struggle with basic maths become adults who struggle with basic maths, and it's nothing more than fear in my experience - give them some confidence and help them practice in a non-threatening environment, and they can usually do wonderful things. I'm not saying there's a quick fix - but with some applied effort, people can usually be helped to become competent with real-world maths.
... and I don't think relaxation will help on its own, but people do need to learn to overcome their fears.
I have successfully taken C/D grade high school students who were failing maths and brought them up to at least B grade with minimal effort ... just takes a bit of time and patience to explain to them the "tricks" of maths and help them see the patterns. Adults who are keen to improve (have the right attitude) are just as easy, if you have the correct technique.
Most kids who struggle with basic maths become adults who struggle with basic maths, and it's nothing more than fear in my experience - give them some confidence and help them practice in a non-threatening environment, and they can usually do wonderful things. I'm not saying there's a quick fix - but with some applied effort, people can usually be helped to become competent with real-world maths.
... and I don't think relaxation will help on its own, but people do need to learn to overcome their fears.
Sim said:
I've always found real world basic maths fairly straightforward (though if asked to do long division by hand, I'd fail), but noticed that my progress slowed with everything past the basic sums, ratios and percentages.
Algebra requires abstract thinking and was extremely difficult, as was calculus, which I never mastered. Statistics was easier, but like long division has since atrophied due to lack of use.
Investing has not helped my maths apart from a marginal improvement of basic arithmetic skills (eschewing anything relating to IRR calculations!).
Where other interests could have involved higher maths, I shied away with having anything to do with invisible numbers, square roots of minus 1, vectors, etc after previous attempts to understand were unsuccessful.
I am not sure if my inability to handle higher maths was to do with fear; probably more laziness, lack of repetition, difficlulties with abstract thinking and wondering what's it for
Rgds, Peter
Glebe said:Differentiation and integration I could handle.
Discreet mathematics I could kinda handle.
Mathematical induction I never got my head around
Well, weak induction was pretty easy. Just show it's true for i = 1, then assuming it is true for i = k, show it works for i = k + 1.
Strong induction was definitely more difficult, though...
Sim
Administrator
Now there's an idea that might help keep me occupied in my decades of retirement ... "real world maths tutoring"
... mmm - now that I think about it, this may be something I could research and write about for one of the subjects in the Masters of Education in Adult Education course I'm currently studying !
... mmm - now that I think about it, this may be something I could research and write about for one of the subjects in the Masters of Education in Adult Education course I'm currently studying !
