Archive for the ‘Math Anxiety’ Category

In my other life, I am a graduate student which means that I am constantly searching and reading research and books regarding mathematics education. In the midst of one of these recent searches, I ran across a book by Jo Boaler (a former professor of mathematics education at Stanford University) that is scheduled for release [...]

Forget the boogie man under the bed. There’s a bigger problem out there. “My child is scared to try new things that are hard for him.” At DreamBox, we hear this quite a bit. And I believe it’s a problem all parents should attack with muster. Why? Because learning to persevere through a tough problem is a life skill that will serve every child well, now and forever. So how does a parent address this? Every child is different. Experiment with the ideas below and figure out which best suits your child’s temperament.

No parent likes to see their child struggle – whether it be in the math class room, or with fitting in on the playground. As parents, we all get anxious when our child hits a speed bump. And when we get anxious, we forget one of the most basic rules of parenting that we all know: every child is different.

I’m increasingly conscious of the gap between the urgent calls for more effective math education in the U.S., and the seemingly low expectations some parents have for their own child to advance in math. It’s as if the pressing national need has nothing to do with us on a personal level. I hear parents talk about their child’s math performance, and say things like “I was never good in math either.” Or regarding newer ways of teaching math, I’ve heard “I don’t like the ‘new math’ because I wasn’t taught that way.”

We’re about to send our November parent newsletter, featuring an article on 'math anxiety'. In the course of writing the article we came across several sites that offer resources to help parents understand and deal with the doubt, fear, and loss of confidence kids can have if they've have bad experiences with math.

We've had a lively discussion in our office this week about the recent New York Times article on issues in US math education in general, and in encouraging girls to be successful in math in particular...

I remember my first day in middle school in Florence, Italy. It is a sunny morning in September. The classroom is full of nervous eleven year olds, glancing around studying the faces of the strangers sitting in the same room.