Across the country, educators continue to wrestle with big questions about math curricula. Two years ago, the California education board’s adoption of a long-gestating new math framework added more fuel to some big questions roiling the field. Should math classrooms embrace an inquiry-based approach or focus on explicit instruction? When is the optimal time for students to take Algebra I, an important gateway for both higher-level learning and high school graduation? What exactly does “evidence based” math entail?
Even as big curricular battles rage on, some teachers are looking to modest pedagogical tweaks they can embrace now.
In a 2022 post, Opinion blogger Larry Ferlazzo combed through 11 years’ worth of columns to identify some teacher advice for improving math instruction. Featuring practical strategies from nearly 30 educators, “10 Teacher-Proofed Strategies for Improving Math Instruction” is an excellent place to start for anyone looking for classroom inspiration.
Before getting into the nitty-gritty of instructional strategies, however, there’s one recurring problem that has troubled math educators writing in EdWeek’s pages: students who lack the self-confidence to even try.
“Too often,” Wendy W. Amato wrote in an Opinion essay last month, “students believe that success in math is about being ‘naturally good’ at it, which makes mistakes feel like evidence they don’t belong.”
Drawing on her background as a classroom teacher and her current work at an education product designer, Amato shared six accessible tips for building a “mistake-friendly” math classroom. This encouraging approach helps students develop the resilience they need to stick with math rather than chalk their missteps up to an innate incompatibility.
When math professor Viveka Vaughn’s occupation comes up in conversation, she explained in a 2023 essay, countless people disclose the same vivid recollection: a math teacher who embarrassed them in front of the class.
In “Math Trauma Is Real. Here’s How You Can Prevent It,” Vaughn argued that these humiliations make for more than just the occasional painful memory; they add up to a systemic barrier that leaves many students checking out of math for good.
Academic strategist Alex Baron identified a similar problem earlier this year. Reflecting on the meager levels of 8th grade math proficiency in the NAEP results, he observed that “100 percent of kids get the message that math matters, even though only 27 percent of 8th graders get the math itself. That discrepancy is a recipe to damage self-confidence.” In his conversation with Education Week Opinion blogger and AEI senior fellow Rick Hess, Baron expanded on why “Math Can Make Smart People Feel Dumb”—and what to do about it.
Even once students have rejected the persistent notion that they may not be “math people,” getting them to stay plugged into math can be a challenge.
In “One Thing We Get Wrong About Teaching Math (and How to Fix It),” math curriculum developer Sara Delano Moore shared an observation from her years in front of the classroom: “Students seemed to turn off their ‘math brains’ as soon as we switched subjects, struggling to retain what they’d just learned.” The solution, as Moore saw it, was a total restructuring of her math class to rotate through smaller chunks of learning rather than covering a single topic then moving on.
For Kendall Stallings, physical movement is an important ingredient in keeping students focused on math. In “Get Kids Moving During Math Lessons. Trust Me, It Helps Them Learn,” the 1st grade teacher laid out strategies for doing just that in early-elementary school. Crucially, these physical activities should be rooted in learning the math content itself, not just brief brain breaks to get the wiggles out.
A sense of play is also central to what Kathy Liu Sun would like to see more of in math lessons, particularly in early grades.
Writing shortly after the birth of her first child and reflecting on her research collaborations with early-childhood educators, the Santa Clara University professor was having qualms about the direction of math instruction. As teachers felt increasing pressure to catch up with learning standards, Sun worried, would her new daughter eventually enter a math class that buried her natural curiosity under a forest of stultifying worksheets?
The call to action she landed on is right there in the headline of her 2019 essay: “Ditch the Math Worksheets and Stop Killing Kids’ Curiosity.” Read the essay for her three prescriptions for how ed. leaders and practitioners can make it happen.
Do you have your own experience helping students learn math? We’d love to hear from you. Consider sending an opinion essay our way.
