Why students don’t like Math and what can be done to make them love it
Why students don’t like Math and what can be done to make them love it? One of the greatest mathematicians, Lawrence Martinek, once said: “Children don’t hate math, what they hate is being confused, intimidated and embarrassed by math”. Even though this mathematician said it all in these few words, let us have an explanatory insight about what is going on in the mind of a child when he or she says “I hate mathematics”.
Why students don’t like math? The teacher plays a big role in this regard. If he/she has taught the students that they have the right to make mistakes and it is the mistakes that people learn from, the students are less likely to “hate” math. Learning from scratch, children learn counting and addition/ subtraction etc. and most do it with interest, but what is it that reaching grade 5 or so and then up to higher and higher classes, the students began to try to distant themselves away from math or math-related subjects like statistics? why students don’t like Math and how to make them love it? Again the question comes in the mind, looping over and over, why students don’t like Math and how to make them love it?
So after all, why students don’t like Math? The thing is getting the right answer in math calculations, makes us feel good or say happy and rewarding. This is because things are going the way we want them to be. Getting the wrong answer will lead the student to confusion about why is this happening even though he thought well before doing the calculations, and if this happens repeatedly, the student gives up and thinks he will never be able to do it anyway, and that feeling forces him to distant himself from math. This is what causes the fear of math or “intimidation” as the mathematician Lawrence says. Now here your brain will start to follow up and understand why students don’t like Math and how to make them love it.
Why students don’t like Math and how to make them love it? One theory also says students find it to be boring and the reason for this is that seeming it is useless knowledge to them. This is also why some students don’t like Math. They find it a less creative way of expressing oneself like there will be only a few ways to work out certain calculations and get the right answer. Since they find it boring we can make use of new technology to keep up with the new generation’s enthusiasm by showing them “boring” things online in a fun and easy way. Online tuition is one such way. Here we are talking about an online maths tutor.
An online maths tutor can utilize multiple software, like that can simulate real-life examples of calculations, and use 3D software to teach about shapes and geometry stuff. Learning with an online maths tutor, most probably, will feel “cool”. There are numerous solutions to the problem of “why students don’t like Math and how to make them love it”. And one of the solutions is hiring a good online maths tutor as mentioned.
Now that we know the root of the problem, how can we overcome it? How to connect students to math? What can be done to make them love it? Lawrence Martinek also points out students being “embarrassed by math”. This is the embarrassment of either telling the wrong answer in front of the whole class or maybe embarrassing by oneself, which by the way, has other factors.
One thing we can say is that things have to be changed at a grass-root level. Teachers should encourage to bring the right answers and also to make mistakes, both at the same time. This will be possible by not rebuking and scolding or even reacting back with negative energy when students do mistakes, especially when they are little ones. We should also relate math to real-life situations to them, and give actual examples of someone using that particular topic of math in his/her field of work.
Obviously one has to guide the correct method but again should not be discouraging making mistakes. This also means that a math class should not be a mere focus on numbers, but also a lesson for life. When students start to feel frustrated by not getting the right answer by quite a few trials, their teachers should teach them it is a part of life and not purely that of math, but there is light at the end of every tunnel any way so keep trying without giving up.
Cioaltutors has, taking all this into consideration, instructed all its tutors whether for home or online tuition, especially online maths tutors to not only teach the subject but ‘apply’ them to real-life situations. Using online platforms/ online tuition is also another way of connecting to a good tutor especially an online maths tutor if the right one is not there in your area. So you can also use the platform of CioalTutors to get online tuition/ to connect to a good online maths tutor.
Our tutors keep in mind the psychological makeup of the child and try to connect them with maths even at elementary levels. If students began to part away from math in the earlier stages, how are we going to expect them to choose math-related subjects? There is a need of changing our attitudes towards math and also how we allow students to play with different techniques and methods and learn by trial and error. By now you must have realized “why students don’t like Math and must have understood how to make them love it.
If only we have the guts of making mistakes, we are going to be the ones who try again and again. And by doing so, we will see things i.e. the calculations are going as expected and we will gain confidence. One may argue well that math gets more and more complex the higher you go in education. That is true. However, the problem doesn’t lie in the introduction of formulas and complexity itself, but in our experience with math before, in the early stages of education when we were children. Once affected at an early age by something, it is very hard to get rid of that feeling, psychologically speaking.
So is there more to “why students don’t like Math and what can be done to make them love it?” Well, yes! Another answer for “why students don’t like Math is as follows. Sometimes there is a need for a supporter who counsels side by side and encourages to make mistakes helping side by side to get things right. And that person needs to be tolerant, knowledgeable and encouraging at the same time. CioalTutors brings its tutors under strict screening so that they serve this purpose properly. We have a great network for online tuition. You can contact us if you are looking for a great online maths tutor. And if it is your first time having online tuition or specifically an online maths tutor, we offer you a free trial lesson to see for yourself how it works.
