Making Every Kid Both Math-Competent and Math-Confident

I recently helped my daughter with her geometry homework, working on items like transversals, and to no surprise, I found it hard to wrestle with long-forgotten math concepts. I could barely spell transversals, let alone explain the concept to my child.

The struggles of teaching math go far beyond my personal experience. Recently, math scores on the National Assessment of Education Progress test dropped to a level not seen in 20 years. Where’s the bottom? Will we ever bridge the gap for students who are struggling?

In 2018, I started the Learning Agency, an organization devoted to the science of learning. This has given me a ringside seat for a number of innovations in the field of education, and for a few years, I’ve been working with Cristina Heffernan, co-founder of ASSISTments. I’ve found her approach to math learning and teaching to be particularly insightful and encouraging.

Heffernan always emphasizes that teachers can make every kid both math-competent and math-confident. This is certainly reassuring to parents, but more importantly, it illuminates why we need to invest in teacher-student relationships, especially in math classrooms.

Adopting a growth mindset in math classrooms

I often hear kids and adults say, “I’m not a math person” or “I’m just not good at math.” These statements are indicative of what’s called a “fixed mindset,” which is often associated with a sense of discouragement, powerlessness, and inability to improve one’s situation. A fixed mindset is extremely common in math classrooms, but with the help of teachers, students can instead adopt a “growth mindset.”

This means believing in their potential to acquire the skills and knowledge needed to excel. In strong, productive teacher-student relationships, teachers nurture growth mindsets and instill in students a sense of confidence, faith, and motivation that will not only catalyze their learning but also grow their potential to tackle challenges in the long run.

There are a few key components to building these relationships, starting with giving instruction that meets the skill levels of individual students. Many educators know this method as “differentiation.” At the same time, it is crucial to foster a positive environment where students support and collaborate to solve academic and personal problems. With genuine personal and collective support, students can quickly grow in self and social awareness, self-management, decision-making, and relationship skills. Experts call this approach social and emotional learning, which plays an increasingly important role in math classrooms today.

Practicing differentiation and personalized instruction

At a recent webinar, Renah Razzaq, a Math and Computer Science teacher at Doherty High School in Worcester, Mass., and ASSISTments user, explained how she practices differentiation and personalized instruction daily.

Razzaq had students from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds in her classes, and some were still learning English alongside geometry and algebra. The school once placed a 16-year-old student in her junior Algebra II class, and she quickly discovered that he hadn’t been in formal school since third grade because of the political turmoil in his home country.

She realized that these circumstances are not isolated incidents, as students bring different social-emotional needs into classrooms that demand care and attention from teachers. In math classrooms, incorporating SEL means being aware of the kind of guidance—in academics, self-confidence, or social awareness—that each student needs to get to where they want to be.

Making productive use of time

Many of us might agree with Razzaq’s approach but still wonder: How can teachers find time to experiment with SEL amid class prep, grading, and administrative duties?

I’m all for strategies that make learning more effective, and in this case, I believe in utilizing educational technologies as a way to make room for innovation and experimentation. Initiatives like the Learning Engineering Tools Competition are also helping to bring new technologies to educators around the globe. With the right tools, teachers can skillfully simplify the equation of allocating more time to individualize instruction and meet academic and social-emotional needs.

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Razzaq did so by giving beginning-of-the-year diagnostic tests, assessing students’ prior knowledge, and assigning exercises tailored to their progress. Her methods provide a glimpse into ways of data-guided teaching. Oftentimes, students are not aware or communicative of the areas in which they need help. Educational technologies can be trusted tools to help teachers identify students’ academic, social, and emotional patterns.

For instance, many platforms can generate reports that summarize individual and collective weak points, which can guide teachers to make more productive use of class time. Some technologies also provide insights into social-emotional experiences such as attentiveness, mood, and time management. We all recognize the value of collaboration between teachers, students, and parents, and the use of data can initiate conversations and relationships that make a difference in our children’s education.

Even more importantly, we need to examine our general approach to education and how it’s shaping our classrooms, households, and the development of technologies. Are we creating an environment where children can thrive? How are we evaluating and fulfilling the wide range of needs of our future generations? Only by knowing our vision can we pinpoint the exact pieces of technology that can complete the picture.