‘I’m not a math person’
Why are students in Hamilton schools doing so poorly in math? As The Spectator’s Joanna Frketich discovers, societal attitudes and anxieties about math are a big part of the problem. And parents, too, are partly to blame.
It has become socially acceptable to be math illiterate.
IAN VANDERBURGH sees it in the negative responses he regularly gets when he tells people he’s the director of the Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing at the University of Waterloo.
VanderBurgh and other math professors commonly hear everything from, “I was never any good at math” to “I’m not a math person” to “I wasn’t born with the math gene.”
“The same wouldn’t be true for someone teaching English,” said VanderBurgh. “Nobody tells someone, ‘I don’t know how to read.’ There is a big difference for some reason.”
Society’s shifting attitude toward math is being partly blamed for the high number of Ontario students failing to meet the provincial standard.
“We have parents who perpetuate this,” said Mary Reid, assistant professor specializing in math at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. “We have a lot of math anxiety. It starts young.”
A Spectator analysis of Hamilton and Burlington results in the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) testing from 2012 to 2016 found the majority of schools saw decreases in the number of students with the mathematics skills the Ontario curriculum expects by the end of Grade 6.
“IN OUR CULTURE, there seems to be a real acceptance where people will say, ‘I’m terrible at math,’” said Peter Sovran, executive superintendent of student achievement and school operations at the Hamilton Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB).
He also regularly hears, “I let my partner do the math at home” and “I can’t help my kids out with math homework.”
He doesn’t get the same comments about other school subjects.
“People don’t say that about reading and they don’t say that about literacy,” said Sovran. “We definitely need to work on that overall culture piece.”
THE NEED TO MAKE math essential again is evident when looking at the number of kids failing to meet provincial standards in Hamilton’s public schools.
Nearly two-thirds of Grade 6 students and half of Grade 3 students missed the mark last school year.
“A lot of young people are scared of numbers,” said Trevor Hearn, emeritus professor of computer science engineering and math at Flinders University in South Australia who now lives in Ancaster. “It’s like a foreign language to them.”
But parents often don’t give their children the tools to decipher, learn and enjoy math in the same way they do with literacy.
“When our children are born, we start reading to them,” said VanderBurgh.
“No one says when your children are born to start doing math with them.”
Instead, parents tend to convey their anxieties about math to their kids.
Key to improving scores is “to not pass on our stereotypes,” said VanderBurgh.
“If we’re uncomfortable with math, let’s do our best not to pass that on to our kids.”
In fact, let’s get rid of the notion entirely that to learn math you need to be born with a brain wired a certain way.
“It starts with a positive position that everyone is capable of doing math and math isn’t something to be feared,” said Sovran.
Teachers have a crucial role to play in shaping how children view numbers, the Expert Panel on Early Math in Ontario found.
“Young children have a natural inquisitiveness about mathematics and teachers can build on this inquisitiveness to help students develop the positive attitudes that often occur when one understands and makes sense of a topic,” its 2003 report said.
It concluded the teacher’s own comfort with math can have a profound and longlasting effect on kids.
“Teachers are essential in influencing their students’ attitudes toward mathematics, since those teachers who understand and enjoy mathematics generally provide positive experiences for their students,” the report said.
“However, teachers who have developed a distaste for mathematics because it has eluded them or appeared abstract or confusing are likely to convey these negative feelings about mathematics to their students.”
An increasing discomfort with math can be seen through EQAO reporting of students’ attitudes about the subject in Grades 3, 6 and 9.
Among Grade 3 public school kids in Hamilton, just over 50 per cent said they liked math and were good at the subject last school year.
But among Grade 6 students, fewer than half show positive attitudes toward math.
In Grade 9 applied math classes, only one-third of students like the subject and feel they are good at it.
Fewer than 60 per cent of them said they understand the mathematics they are taught.
Students failing to meet the provincial benchmarks are more likely to go into applied math, which develops skills through practical applications and concrete examples.
“They don’t like it because it’s a way of thinking that doesn’t come intuitively to people,” said Hearn. “They are intimidated by it.”
Students are asked about their attitudes toward math during EQAO testing with a surprising number saying they “never” like math.
At one Hamilton public school it was the view of nearly half of the Grade 6 students last year. Seven more HWDSB schools had one-quarter of Grade 6 students say they “never” like math.
To compare, just one public school had more than 25 per cent of Grade 3 students answer “never.”
“I’ve always tried to get my students to be friends with numbers,” said Hearn.
“I’m in a small group of people who enjoy numbers. To me, they are much more trustworthy than words. Words have a fuzziness about what they mean. A number is dead set.”
He worries society is increasingly making children frightened of math.
“Don’t let that happen,” he said. “I love numbers. I trust them. But a lot of people don’t.”
The 2003 report of the expert panel said: “In order to facilitate students’ mathematical understanding, teachers themselves need to develop a sound understanding of mathematics. Teachers need to know the mathematics that they teach as well as why they teach it.”
A teacher’s narrow or limited understanding of particular math concepts presents real problems in inquiry-based learning, making it hard to answer a student’s questions or guide the investigation.
“We recognize that pre-service programs are falling short on the training teachers require to understand math concepts deeply themselves, be able to see the ‘big ideas’ in math and in using the seven mathematical processes in their lesson planning,” said the HWCDSB report.
ONE OF THE KEY components to Ontario’s plan to fix the math problem is putting at least one lead teacher in every elementary school. It would be a current teacher who would take professional development in math and share what was learned with other teachers.
The Renewed Math Strategy, which started providing $60 million to boost math results in September, also includes:
Sixty minutes of protected math every day for elementary students
Improved access to online math resources
Professional development for teachers and principals
Tutoring and summer school for students
Intensive support to schools with the greatest needs
The provincial strategy builds on the same approach taken to improve literacy.
“As a result, literacy rates are up, and we are confident that with the right plan in place for math, we will see student achievement in mathematics grow in the coming years,” said Education Minister Mitzie Hunter in a statement to The Spectator.
Hamilton schools have already started programs that have similar elements to the provincial plan — such as tutoring and math special assignment teachers who go into schools to work with both the students and teachers to boost skills.
Both programs likely contributed to Canadian Martyrs on Main Street West increasing its EQAO scores by 21 per cent from 2012 to 2016, said principal Peter Messina.
“It was very helpful,” he said. “It makes a big difference.”
His school has also tried to get parents involved in math learning by hosting a well-attended LEGO night.
“When students make that connection on how it relates to life, you get buy-in, passion and enjoyment,” said Messina. “Through that, their marks go up.”
That connection is crucial, said Hearn about his years as a prof in Australia. “If the students aren’t connecting, I’d say look at the problem they’re being asked to solve. Are they real for kids in this age right now?”
It raises questions about whether the EQAO tests themselves need to change.
“Our report card data is showing the students are doing well in Grade 6,” said Greg Tabone, assistant superintendent of education at the HWCDSB. “The big question is what is it about that assessment and I don’t know if anyone has the answer.”
HWCDSB has been working for two years at implementing the recommendations of its task force.
“Based on the research, the practices we’re doing with schools, students and teachers are all showing we’re on the right path,” said Tabone. “It’s really hard because you do see the Grade 6 scores going down.”