How to make kids better at maths

Helping Australian kids get better at maths may be as simple as shifting negative attitudes, according to one prominent education expert.

Many students see maths as a subject only certain types of people are good at, which can stop them from trying to engage, according to Dr Laura Tuohilampi from the University of New South Wales School of Education.

“Think how often you might hear someone say, ‘I’m not a maths person’, yet everyone uses the same critical thinking skills you need to solve problems in maths in your everyday life,” Dr Tuohilampi said.

“In reality, the largest group of people actively using maths are the people who think they’re no good at it.”

Dr Tuohilampi champions what she calls “maths for humans”, and a rethinking of maths curriculums to appeal more to students’ natural sense of wonder and curiosity.

“Many people who say they’re no good at maths or have a negative experience of it get excited when faced with a problem that calls on their mathematical reasoning,” she said.

“When we solve real-life problems – like for example, estimating the volume of furniture when booking storage space – ‘maths-aversion’ does not exist.”

Dr Tuohilampi suggests asking students to put their heads together to solve open-ended problems which may have more than one entry point, and possibly more than one answer.

“When we talk about rich maths learning, it’s not just an exercise to find the right answers, but also kids’ reasoning skills get a workout while rationalising about their experiences of the world,” she said.

“They start to trust in their own thinking processes, which is very much needed for competency later on.”

Rather than completely overhaul Australia’s maths curriculum, Dr Tuohilampi says there is room to introduce a more open-ended approach alongside traditional theoretical maths being taught in schools.

Just one lesson per month which takes a “richer” approach can be enough to change students’ attitudes towards maths, she says.

“Teachers struggle with their students being unmotivated and disengaged. But when you give them these kinds of challenges every once in a while, you allow them permission to start appreciating maths and they appreciate the conventional tasks more,” Dr Tuohilampi said.