Math Mindset

Hi, for term two and the first 4 Mondays of term three my hub has been working on a online course about maths. Now you may be thinking that it was a course on math questions like 3+2 or 5x8. But it was about having a Maths Mindset. What is a Maths Mindset? Well a  Maths Mindset is basically a growth mindset just more for maths.  There where 6 lessons that we had to complete and they where all helpful. These are their names and a little bit about what they taught me.

1. Knocking down myths about maths
This lesson was all about knocking down myths about maths. ( like the title said).  In this lesson they talked about what people thought maths was about vs what maths is.  They asked people what they thought about maths, most people that got maths taught to them in a boring way, think maths is boring, therefore do not want to do maths.  People that get maths taught to them in a fun way, like maths and want to do more of it. Most people think that if they do not like maths, or if they are not good at maths, then they should just give up, because they are not a "maths person" They do not give their brain the information it needs to grow and so it shrinks like plastic.

2. Math and Mindset
This lesson was all about having a positive mindset, and not listening to people tell you that you can not do maths. The messages that you hear are important  because they encourage you or they make you feel  like you can become nothing better than you already are. If you have a growth mindset than you can achieve greater things than if you have a fixed mindset because you are believing in your self and that is important to.  Choosing a question that is the right level for you is important, you may think that choosing the right question is easy and it is. If you don't care what other people think.  In the video that I watched the students at Standford where given a question. When they had finished the teachers either told them that they were good at maths or that they worked hard on the question. The students then had the choice between an easy maths question and a hard maths question. The students that got told that they where good at maths chose the easy question and the students that got told that they worked hard on the question chose the hard question. Why? Well,  some people think that some students just wanted an easy question, but most people think that it was because if you get told that you are good at maths then you will not want to get a question wrong therefor choosing an easy question.


3.  This lesson was all about not giving up. Struggling is good because when you struggle you grow your brain and make your brain stronger.  Speed does not matter, it is better to be slow and understand the task more then be fast but get the task wrong. If you make a mistake then it does not matter as long as you learn for the mistake and do not make the same mistake again.  Do not think that you can not do something. If you have this mindset then you will never be able to do anything. Trust yourself and don't give up.


4.    This lesson was about 3 things.  Talking, reasoning and mathematical thinking.  At the beginning of this lesson I thought that only mathematical thinking was going to be useful. At the end of the lesson they where all equal important in my eyes.  The thing that changed my mind was that the thought of maths not just being about hard questions that you find hard to answer. But about explaining why you chose the strategy and why you think that this was the best strategy to use. To properly convince someone that the strategy you used is the best and most efficient you have to be able to talk and reason, as well as you mathematically think.   

5.    This lesson was about 3 small but very important things . Numbers, Patterns and Representations.  The first thing that they talked about was numbers. Numbers are so important in maths because they are one of the things that makes math, math. They also help with real life situations. The second thing that they talked about was patterns. Finding patterns in maths is really important because they help you work out the answers to questions faster. The third thing that they talked about was representations. like the other two representations are really important. They help with how you see math. If you get maths set out in a boring way then you will probably think that maths is boring but if you get maths set out in a fun way then you will probably think that maths is fun.

6.  This lesson was about math in life, nature and work. The people talked about how everything that has pattens has math. Art, dance, sport etc. The main thing that I took away from this lesson was that you can always find math in everything.  It is also very helpful for finding math in school. Say for example I have to use a strategy that I have never used before then I can often find a real life situation to help me.

Thank you for reading this blog post. What was the most important thing that you took away from this?