Maths: you usually either love it or hate it. Our pre-service teachers are no different. For many, the idea of teaching mathematics can induce anxiety, and intensify insecurities about their teaching ability.
Imagine teaching a subject you don’t feel you’ve entirely mastered yourself. Naturally, such teachers would feel trepidation. It can influence their approach to the subject, and impact how well they engage their students.
How can we help pre-service teachers be less anxious about teaching mathematics? What if maths was interactive and engaging, just as it should be? The fourth edition of Helping Children Learn Mathematics is a textbook for pre-service teachers that assists on both fronts.
Why are pre-service teachers anxious about maths?
The apprehension is understandable: if we can’t do something well ourselves, we feel we’ll fail to adequately teach it to others. Mathematics carries this weight for many pre-service teachers.
Why? Well, most of us simply didn’t learn maths properly when we were kids.
Most pre-service teachers originally learnt maths using repetition, memorisation, and rote learning. We know now that these approaches alone don’t lead to a deep understanding of concepts. Nor do they relate maths to the real world. Mathematics education has evolved over the decades, and now our pre-service teachers need to reconcile what they originally learnt and gain confidence to teach it within the current framework.
It’s important we tackle this because maths anxiety impacts the classroom. While in the throes of teaching maths, new teachers are so absorbed in trying to teach it correctly, that they lose sight of their classroom. They miss that crucial moment when a student disengages, or conversely they miss an opportunity to observe the wins – when a student has an ‘a-ha!’ learning moment.
Teachers are maths educators, not mathematicians
As Dr Mark Gronow, co-author of Helping Children Learn Mathematics reminds us,
“Teachers are maths educators, not mathematicians. The teacher isn’t the fount of the knowledge, rather they build an environment for learning to take place.”
Teachers do not need to be mathematicians to create a wonderfully rich learning environment for maths. Rather, teachers are facilitators of learning activities that engage children and inspire the love of mathematics.
The moment we can shift this mental perception, the anxiety over teaching maths can fall away and allow for an engaging environment. Pre-service teachers can freely create learning opportunities utilising mathematical tools, familiar games, and real-life examples of maths at play.
Creating an engaging maths environment
Rather than focusing too greatly on procedural learning, we want to teach children to understand maths by showing its connection to the world we live in. Once the concepts come to life, it’s much easier to teach the mathematical theories.
Dr Gronow recommends incorporating engaging activities where students work together to develop their maths skills. He suggests well-known games such as Connect 4, Noughts & Crosses, Sudoku and Mastermind. These are all opportunities to harness mathematical strategies in fun games.
Likewise, seeking out maths in nature can inspire an appreciation of mathematics. Think of the symmetrical patterns of a snowflake; the spiralling sequence of seashells and pine cones; the geometric wonders of hexagons in bee hives.
Other strategies
Dr Gronow also recommends supporting pre-service teachers through video clubs and self-reflection. In fact, video clubs are widely used in mathematics education research as an opportunity to observe and reflect on teaching and learning. According to Dr Gronow,
“We can video teachers to see how they use the framework, and then have the teachers watch it themselves and ask them to reflect on their own teaching.”
Pre-service teachers gain insight into how children best learn mathematics and identify what teaching strategies work in real-life classrooms. Videos are a powerful method of helping pre-service teachers contextualise theory before going on placement.
In fact, the newest edition of Reys’ Helping Children Learn Mathematics textbook utilises multimedia resources that:
- Explain how to use manipulatives as tools to facilitate engaging learning
- Give pre-service teachers the opportunity to view in-class activities in action
Universities and their academics are at the forefront of changing the way we think about mathematics education. A balance of pedagogical knowledge and mathematical knowledge will in turn help eliminate anxiety about teaching maths.
About Mark Gronow:
Mark Gronow is Lecturer in the College of Education at Central Queensland University (CQU) where he is the course coordinator for the Bachelor of Education (Primary) degree primary mathematics education and STEM education courses for preservice teachers. Mark was a teacher of secondary mathematics at all levels from Year 7 to 12 in NSW for more than thirty years, before completing his PhD in mathematics education at Macquarie University, Sydney. Mark held positions of Head of Mathematics, Assistant Principal (Curriculum) and Deputy Principal (Administration) at several secondary schools in Sydney. In addition to his PhD, Mark has a Bachelor of Education in Secondary Mathematics, and masters degrees in education, educational leadership and education research.
More Information
Wiley’s newest edition of Rey’s Helping Children Learn Mathematics is an exciting advancement that supports universities and pre-service teachers, and will be released for use in Semester 1 2022.
If you would like to know more about Helping Children Learn Mathematics or any of Wiley’s titles, please reach out to your local Wiley Consultant or request a desk copy today.
