Sadie Pool
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Framing mathematics ability as innate or intimately connected to someone's intelligence is common. It is important to take away to stigma around math being too hard or difficult. As teachers it should be our goal to make every student feel smart. This article helps with some tips to make the classroom a safe space for learning math. Have you ever heard a parent or colleague say something akin to, "Jonathan can really write, but I don't know what happened in math!"? Unfortunately, this framing not only narrowly describes how mathematics learning occurs but also raises the stakes for how students participate in classrooms.
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Students may worry about judgments from peers and teachers related to their mathematics ability, or they may feel vulnerable to labels that might include "nonmath person" or "slow." One of my goals as a teacher is to replace this negative talk. It is damaging to the student. The importance of countering this narrative in authentic, meaningful ways cannot be overemphasized. Although the "nonmath" narrative may have an impact on all students, the ways
that underserved students are often positioned as deficient or incapable in relation to mathematics, challenging this narrative by explicitly framing underserved students as mathematically able is especially important for teachers. A teacher-student relationship is very special to young children. It is important that the relationship is fostered and not damaged by negative emotions around math. Compounding this, students who are in urban schools comprising African American and Hispanic students often receive low-quality mathematics instruction (Lubienski 2002). Countering these impoverished practices, teachers can frame students' mathematics ability positively by focusing on the following three strategies:
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(1) Eliciting a complete explanation from students; (2) Revoicing student thinking; and (3) Highlighting students' mathematical competence. Students may have a hard time explaining how they got the right answer using the correct vocabulary, but listening to their explanation and then wording it with the right jargon is helpful. This was helpful to me as a student. 1.
How would these three strategies play out in a classroom setting? 2.
How would you deal with an emotional response to a bad grade on a math test?
