Ok so in a few topics lately I've seen quite a large amount of people saying that they either never understood maths, never tried with maths or thought it was pointless. Let me start by saying if you think at any point my tone is elitist here, then it's not intended and I respect anybody who just doesn't enjoy maths and so didn't bother with it, the same goes for me with English, Biology and Drama.
I'm a very logically minded person, and understand most of the maths that I get taught immediately (I can't stress enough that I'm not bragging here, I'm just stating how I feel about this), and if I don't I can think through it until I come to a better way of thinking about a new concept in maths and understand it's implications and how it relates to the rest of my understanding of Maths.
Now help me out here, it's hard for me to understand exactly WHAT stops people from doing what I have just mentioned, because it's very hard for people to get into other people's mindsets and how they think things through, what blocks you from understanding how Maths works as you are taught it, and what stops you from being interested and what just completely baffles you about it? Is it the teaching? the way in which the syllabuses are made? or do you really just not feel any connection with the subject at all?
And if you do enjoy maths, what do you think other people's problems are with it that you have noticed?
I've thought about a few factors that might affect people's understanding of maths, and please tell me if you think I'm right about these or not:
1) People are forced to think about maths in one way - I think the most important part of maths is understand why it works, and getting it to work in your own head. If it is taught in one way and one way only in the classroom, this might not work in some of the student's heads and they start to think they are "incompatible" with maths, when really they have just been taught it in a manner which is incompatible with their way of thinking. I think that anybody can be good at maths, they just need to think about it in their own unique way which makes sense to them.
2) The teaching is bad/students are taught to pass maths exams, not to understand maths - I think there's way too much emphasis on exams when it comes to maths, and teachers tend to give students set methods to get around problems, rather than having them use their own heads. I think I have very good teachers that are teaching me A level maths currently, especially one who actually goes into depth about how the Maths works, rather than just giving us cookie cutter methods to use, which really does help you get a better understanding of Maths.
3) There's a lack of enthusiasm for Maths, and a lot of ignorance to how interesting/useful Maths really is - A lot of the time I hear people asking "why is this useful?" or "this is pointless" when they are learning new things in maths. Almost all of maths has a use, and Maths and Science are integrated into almost every aspect of our day to day lives, it's just hidden from everybody so only the Maths and Science people behind things like Engineering, Economics and Chemistry have to worry about it, but without Maths, we'd have almost no aspect of our modern lifestyle that we live today.
Also, even if some of Maths IS useless, this doesn't mean its not and interesting thing to learn about, English, Art and Music are just as useful as these "pointless" sections of Maths, yet they're still pursued and enjoyed by many. Maths is a very elegant thing, and the more you understand it the more you realize how astounding it is, it opens your mind to how everything is connected, how everything works together and how complex certain aspects of the world we live in are. I'd go as far as to say this "pointless" maths could be considered an art form.
So, if you don't like maths, or think that you can't do it, am I on to something here? Or is it that you just really despise maths, like I do other subjects.
Also if you do like maths, what do you see as the biggest barrier around Maths that you could see being problematic for other people?
I'm a very logically minded person, and understand most of the maths that I get taught immediately (I can't stress enough that I'm not bragging here, I'm just stating how I feel about this), and if I don't I can think through it until I come to a better way of thinking about a new concept in maths and understand it's implications and how it relates to the rest of my understanding of Maths.
Now help me out here, it's hard for me to understand exactly WHAT stops people from doing what I have just mentioned, because it's very hard for people to get into other people's mindsets and how they think things through, what blocks you from understanding how Maths works as you are taught it, and what stops you from being interested and what just completely baffles you about it? Is it the teaching? the way in which the syllabuses are made? or do you really just not feel any connection with the subject at all?
And if you do enjoy maths, what do you think other people's problems are with it that you have noticed?
I've thought about a few factors that might affect people's understanding of maths, and please tell me if you think I'm right about these or not:
1) People are forced to think about maths in one way - I think the most important part of maths is understand why it works, and getting it to work in your own head. If it is taught in one way and one way only in the classroom, this might not work in some of the student's heads and they start to think they are "incompatible" with maths, when really they have just been taught it in a manner which is incompatible with their way of thinking. I think that anybody can be good at maths, they just need to think about it in their own unique way which makes sense to them.
2) The teaching is bad/students are taught to pass maths exams, not to understand maths - I think there's way too much emphasis on exams when it comes to maths, and teachers tend to give students set methods to get around problems, rather than having them use their own heads. I think I have very good teachers that are teaching me A level maths currently, especially one who actually goes into depth about how the Maths works, rather than just giving us cookie cutter methods to use, which really does help you get a better understanding of Maths.
3) There's a lack of enthusiasm for Maths, and a lot of ignorance to how interesting/useful Maths really is - A lot of the time I hear people asking "why is this useful?" or "this is pointless" when they are learning new things in maths. Almost all of maths has a use, and Maths and Science are integrated into almost every aspect of our day to day lives, it's just hidden from everybody so only the Maths and Science people behind things like Engineering, Economics and Chemistry have to worry about it, but without Maths, we'd have almost no aspect of our modern lifestyle that we live today.
Also, even if some of Maths IS useless, this doesn't mean its not and interesting thing to learn about, English, Art and Music are just as useful as these "pointless" sections of Maths, yet they're still pursued and enjoyed by many. Maths is a very elegant thing, and the more you understand it the more you realize how astounding it is, it opens your mind to how everything is connected, how everything works together and how complex certain aspects of the world we live in are. I'd go as far as to say this "pointless" maths could be considered an art form.
So, if you don't like maths, or think that you can't do it, am I on to something here? Or is it that you just really despise maths, like I do other subjects.
Also if you do like maths, what do you see as the biggest barrier around Maths that you could see being problematic for other people?
