At the beginning of a new school year, we think a lot about what we want students to learn.
But there’s another question worth asking:
How do we want students to feel while they’re learning math?
Curious? Confident? Interested? Willing to take a chance? Unfortunately this is not how a lot of students feel. Instead they feel anxious, bored, or even fearful of math learning.
Those feelings aren’t separate from learning. They can change the learning itself.
When students feel good about math, they engage more
Think about the difference between a student who sees a math problem and thinks, I want to figure this out, and one whose first thought is, I’m bad at this.
Those two students approach the exact same mathematics very differently.
Research on math anxiety has found connections not only with achievement, but also with students’ engagement and willingness to do mathematics. When students feel anxious about math, they can become more likely to avoid it.
And learning math requires time spent thinking about math: trying something, noticing a pattern, making a mistake, changing strategies, talking about an idea, and trying again.
When students feel good about math, they can think more freely
There’s also a scientific reason to care about how students experience mathematics. Research has found that math anxiety can interfere with working memory, the mental resources we use to hold and manipulate information while solving a problem.
In other words, creating a positive experience of mathematics isn’t just about making school more pleasant.
How students feel can affect how they learn.
When students feel good about math, teaching gets easier
Teachers know the difference between a math lesson students are simply getting through and one they are genuinely engaged in.
Too often, math can feel like something teachers have to pull students through: getting them started, keeping them focused, and convincing them to take a risk. But when students are curious and confident, the whole dynamic changes. They want to try. They share strategies. They notice things. Teachers can spend less energy getting students to participate and more time responding to their thinking.
That’s the kind of math classroom we want to help make more common.
A small daily routine can change the feeling of math
This year, we’ve talked with a lot of teachers who describe the same struggle. Some students have spent years feeling frustrated, unsuccessful, or simply uninterested in math. At that point, it isn’t just a matter of achievement. It’s a matter of changing how students feel about mathematics, and those feelings can compound year after year.
Tile Farm Academy is designed to help change that. It’s a simple 10-minute daily number sense routine that fits alongside the curriculum teachers are already using. Students play with numbers, solve problems, share ideas, and build a more intuitive understanding of how math works.
But most importantly, their excitement drives their learning.
As this school year begins, teachers have been telling us that students are already asking when they’ll get to play, build, explore, and share ideas with Tile Farm.
Students excited to drive their own math learning. That’s what we want math to feel like.