‘I hate maths.” “I can’t do maths.” We hear these Âsentiments frequently from adults and the pre-service teachers with whom we work. Most of these people do not express similar views about other subjects, or at least, not so acutely or emotionally.
Both of us work in mathematics teacher education. The negativity of such sentiments is unhelpful for our work, but we have a dilemma. If you hate maths, you are likely to avoid doing maths. But you cannot move on from hating maths without doing some maths.
It is this dilemma that spurred the development of an initiative within the Wits school of Âeducation. Called “I Hate Maths”, the Âinitiative Âencourages people to “talk maths” around a monthly problem based on primary school mathematics.
The problem is emailed to staff, Âstudents and external email lists, and is Âcarried within The Teacher — the Mail & Guardian’s monthly Ânewspaper for teachers. We Âencourage our audience to share the problem and to submit their solutions.
We live in a culture where book clubs are relatively common. Friends read a book together and then meet socially to talk about it.
Meet socially to talk about maths
The “I Hate Maths” initiative aims to Âencourage this kind of activity around Âmathematical ideas — try a problem together and share your thinking.
One problem we sent out was this: “You need to visit your aunt who is sick, but do not have much time. Would it be quicker to travel there at 55km/h and back at 45km/h, or travel there and back at 50km/h?”
We received responses from our staff, students, schoolteachers and the public. Many said they enjoyed trying the problem without the fear associated with maths at school. Some acknowledged that they used maths-avoidance strategies by Âsaying things like: “It depends which Âhighway you’re on.”
In discussion forums and on our website we follow up on different solutions. The best solutions and commentary on the concepts involved are carried on our website and in The Teacher.
Two weeks ago Professor Mike Askew, an international expert in primary mathematics from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, ran a public “I Hate Maths” Âseminar at the Wits school of education. Teachers, parents and teacher Âeducators sat together and worked on primary school maths problems.
Fear of maths has been widely documented
Openings to talk through and explain mathematical Âthinking are particularly Âcritical for Âprimary school teachers because, both in South Africa and Âinternationally, fear of maths has been widely documented among them.
This fear, predictably, has consequences for maths teaching in primary schools. Evidence points to highly “procedural” teaching approaches that involve directions on what to do, with little emphasis on why particular methods are selected, the types of problems they are Âuseful for and alternative processes that could be used.
Our own experience indicates that where teachers feel unsure of their mathematical competence they will stick rigidly to routine Âquestions, Âsteering clear of those that might open the door to Âgenuine Âmathematical thinking.
This has consequences for how maths is Âexperienced in Âclassrooms — namely, as endless Âprescribed routines to be memorised.
The “I Hate Maths” problems provide spaces to break with this approach. Our problems do not have obvious or unique paths to the Âsolutions and we ask people to explain the processes they choose.
A cycle begins
For the teacher, hearing these Âprocesses provides evidence of Âpresent understandings and begins a cycle of development-focused Âteaching.
In the example above some responses we received said that it would make no difference going faster one way and more slowly on return because the gain in time going faster would be offset by the slower time getting back. Development-focused teaching might look like this:
Teacher: “So the overall time is the same both ways?”
Solver: “Yes.”
Teacher: “So let’s say that your aunt lives 100km away. How long would the journey time be with 55km/h there and 45km/h back? And how long with 50km/h there and back?”
Solver: “Well, the time for there and back at 50 km/h is two lots of 100/50 which is 2 x 2 hrs = 4 hrs.”
Teacher: “Okay, so you think that the time taken at 55km/h will be Âoffset by the time taken at 45km/h, so we get 4 hours overall here too?”
Solver: “Yes.”
Teacher: “How would you check that?”
Solver: “We can get the time to travel 100km at 55km/h by dividing distance by speed, 100 ÷ 55, and the time to travel back would be 100 ÷ 45.”
Teacher: “Okay, so when you work out these values and add them together you get 4 hours?”
Solver: “Yes, we would, because of the offset.”
Teacher: “Can you check that?”
Solver (using a calculator): “100 ÷ 55 = 1.818181 … And 100 ÷ 45 = 2.2222 — But when we put these together we get a bit more than 4 hours …?”
Teacher: “Mmm, we do. Can you draw a picture to help you see why it seems to take longer to go faster one way and slower on the way back than doing a consistent speed does? And I wonder whether this is always true, or only true for a journey of 100km at these speeds?”
Here we see aspects of Âskilful Âprimary mathematics Âteaching — following up on pupil’s Âthinking, encouraging explanation, Ârepresenting ideas in mathematical language and in diagrams, Âmaking choices about when to Ânarrow the problem and Âchallenging Âlearners to think beyond the Âimmediate Âquestion.
We believe that it is Âpossible to move on from hating maths by encouraging people to have fun by “talking maths” more often. The “I Hate Maths” initiative aims to provide accessible problems and social spaces for enabling this shift.
Professor Hamsa Venkat is the South African numeracy chair at Wits University and leads the five-year Wits Maths Connect Primary project, Âworking with 10 primary schools. Lynn Bowie is a lecturer at Wits and leads the “ÂConcepts and Literacy in Mathematics” BEd course. For the “I Hate Maths” problems, solutions and commentary mentioned in this article, see wits.ac.za/academic/humanities/education/primary%20maths/14101/i_hate_maths.html