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Thinking Freely Volume 1 Issue 1
Respect is Key to Engaging Adult Math Students
“Most adults want to learn math but are just afraid to attempt it because of past failures and humiliation,” says Professor Allen
The trick to getting adult students involved? Basic respect. Professor Allen believes that it is imperative for the adult learner to never be talked down to, or lectured to, or presented with material and methodology that follows the same approach that left them baffled in their previous math exposure. Their first experience learning math may not have been successful or positive. Most traditional attempts to re-teach them will most likely be unsuccessful leading to a vicious cycle of math-phobia.
So how does Professor Allen really get the math-phobic adult to learn? Her approach falls into three basic steps:
1. Capture their attention by providing them with an engaging experience that allows the students to essentially forget they are in a math class.
2. Present the material in a manner that is not a repetition of past experiences and which is non-condescending.
3. Finally, don’t’ treat math as an isolating experience. Encourage students to “talk mathematics” throughout each class. Students should discuss, compare, and learn from each other and build on each other’s skills. Gone are the days when it was considered blatant cheating if students discussed their math answers with each other.
