As a Maths teacher for over 25 years, I often come across people who exhibit intense fear of Maths. This happens very often especially at parent-teacher evenings. Pupils come to Maths class with so much fear of the subject that it actually becomes the biggest block in learning Maths. I think one of the most important reason for this is people, are naturally fearful of failure. Their fear of failing in Maths makes them defensive and quickly block their minds in learning the actual content of Maths. If you have had such experiences why not share with others by leaving a comment. I sure many of us would like to overcome this fear and if you have suggestion it would really be great.
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bwaveandfwee
- 2008-11-28 @ 19:21:52
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I teach basic literacy and maths at Feltham Young Offenders Institution and with a new boy I tend to start with literacy and after an hour I mention maths and whereas they know their limitations in english they often say that they are not bad at maths. This usually means that they can add and have a vague idea of subtraction. The down side is that some boys are in for only two or three weeks before they are moved but others are in for a few months and with these you can get astonishing results. I try to get them to remember very vaguely how they did subtraction at school and refresh them on it. If they can't remember then I teach the old 'ten to the top and one to the bottom' as I think it is confusing when there are a lot of zeros in the top line and they have to keep borrowing from the left and crossing out. A recent boy went on to long multiplication and division, and could change a decimal into a fraction and understand complicated percentage problems. Also, he could simplify powers to a variety of bases - and then hed was moved.