| A Word on Math and Science Phobia |
| Math phobia, especially but not
exclusively among female students, is unfortunately a common occurrence
in college classrooms. At times this fear extends to all things "scientific,"
at times also to things computer-based. This fear is most likely not a
spontaneous reaction to certain activities in these modules; rather this
fear is older, a learned reaction to math, science, and computers rooted
in earlier unpleasant experiences with them. The bad news is that fears
are difficult to replace with more positive attitudes toward a subject
matter. This is especially the case in areas where the fear is bound up
with self-esteem issues. The good news is that everything that is learned
can be unlearned and eventually, with patience, be replaced with a different
kind of knowledge and emotional content.
Testers of these active learning modules have repeatedly reported math phobia among their students. Often this fear has translated into a noncooperative, even spiteful attitude toward completing certain activities ("I don't do math!"). Here are several suggestions, also based on these instructors' experiences, for how to overcome, transcend, or get around math and science phobia:
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| Demystifying | It is not only useful but imperative to use common language in explaining
to students what science does, what a formula represents, how a computer
"thinks." For example, it may be useful to walk through a problem first
without any math or scientific jargon at all, and then say that there is
a different (more effective, quicker, more elegant...) way to look at this,
or do this, and then remind students as you work through it again using
math/scientific expressions that they already did this once and got it.
You can point out to students that, for example, a mathematical equation
is simply another way of writing a sentence.
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| Examples, examples, and yet more examples! | Remind students that they do math every day, confronting
them with the fact that they already know how to do it (at least some basics!):
when they count their change to get a soft drink (addition), when they
calculate whether they can go to a concert after they sell their books
back at the end of the semester (percentage, subtraction, multiplication),
when they generalize about things always happening along with something
else (correlation) and so on. In this way you can build on what students
already know, which is usually a necessary part of learning something new.
Examples are also a great way to show students your excitement about a
subject, something that may entirely "wrap them up" in the subject matter
-- meanwhile they used math to solve that exciting problem...
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| Demonstrating usefulness | Learning of any skill is easier when students can see clearly what
it's good for, and how it makes their lives easier rather than more difficult.
This is another opportunity to bring in examples that are linked to students'
lives.
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| Building trust | At the root of most fears, especially those linked to self-confidence
and self-esteem issues, is a betrayal of trust -- trust in oneself and
one's capabilities, trust in the goodness and fairness of the people surrounding
a learner, and so on. Most likely, you are not the one who once betrayed
that trust, but you are the one who is now confronted with a student who
distrusts and fears that s/he could ever succeed at the feared task (again),
that s/he is as good or intelligent as any other. An instructor's positive
attitude toward students, her/his patience and consistent encouragement,
a non-condescending way of talking about learning something that is hard
(to some), and allowing enough time for the emotionally loaded skill acquisition
-- all of these will go a long way toward (re-)establishing rapport with,
and trust in, students to go beyond their resistances.
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| Persistence | One instructor reported that her teaching assistant was simply persistent
in the face of math phobia. She explained, re-explained, walked students
step-by-step through a math problem, and repeatedly encouraged students
to "just do it." Eventually 97% of the class completed the problem successfully.
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