Many of us feel a sympathetic gut reaction when our children tell us they are having a hard time in math. “So did I”, we tell them, or just as often, “I hated math in school!” Out of sympathy, we instantly reinforce their fear, not knowing that we are helping to create a sense of self that contains an image of themselves as “bad at math” – a self-image that is shared by over 90% of American adults. And yet, in today’s economy, most of the job growth is in STEM fields (a term that refers to science, technology, engineering, and math). So how can we help our children succeed in math? Find a math specialist who can diagnose and treat the root of the problem.
Many people try to help their children at home, others tell them to ask their teacher for extra help, and some look for a math tutor to help. For a lucky few, that’s enough to get them back on track and learning in the classroom. However, many people find that helping their children themselves is frustrating for both parent and child and can often make the problem worse. Asking the teacher is a great option, but teachers are busy, the need is great. Whether we like it or not, teachers are not always available to the extent they would like to be. Moreover, that same teacher has already imparted the information during the class, so quite often, they simply repeat the content they delivered in class – the content that created the problem to begin with. A tutor can often help here. Tutors, especially those with teaching experience, can deliver the material at the student’s own pace in a manner that may differ from the classroom teacher. Problem solved? Not always. Math tutors were often strong in math when they were in school. If the tutor has no teaching experience, they can become frustrated with the child’s pace of learning, which may be slower than theirs was. Even if the tutor is great, students can become dependent on the tutor, relying on them for their math content for year after year. And that is what math tutors provide: math content.
A math specialist can address the root of the child’s problem: the perception that they are “bad at math.” This misconception actually prevents children from learning by provoking an anxiety response whenever math content is delivered in a classroom context. The adrenaline that floods the child’s body stops learning in its tracks (Butterfield, Martin, & Prairie, 2003), and can even create ADD-like symptoms in the classroom. In fact, we have known for years that alleviating the anxiety surrounding math leads to over a twenty percentile point gain on standardized tests (Ma, 1999). The problem is that math anxiety is rarely addressed in a classroom or tutoring situation. A math specialist works with math content, of course. After all, children are required to master a given amount of mathematics every year, and math specialists (and some very gifted math tutors) can often go further to identify foundation concepts that may not have been learned or have been learned incorrectly in previous years. But the difference between a math specialist and a math tutor is that a math specialist addresses math content and the basic foundation concepts, all the while working overtly to alleviate math anxiety and create a new self-image for the child as a confident, talented mathematician. The student’s new self-image reduces the adrenaline that interferes with classroom learning, and when bolstered by a newly-strengthened foundation of mastered concepts and skills, the student begins to experience success in the classroom.
The goal of any math tutor, specialist, or parent helper is the same: to render ourselves obsolete. We all carry the image in our minds of every child who is learning math in the classroom with a smile on his or her face, no extra help needed. Are there any guarantees that math specialists can create a generation of Einsteins out of our children? No, of course not. But a math specialist may provide the support they need to do their best work in math, with smiles on their faces.
(For references, please look at our Research page.)
