It’s not just kids, many parents have ‘Maths anxiety’. While, the importance of Maths education is all but universally recognized, if you’re a parent who is not confident about your own Maths abilities, you’re likely to be feeling some stress around how you support your child in mastering Maths. You may even doubt whether it is likely that your offspring can master Maths.
When parents were at school, the dominant thought about Maths proficiency was that some kids would be naturally inclined – ‘gifted’ in Maths, most though would struggle along to get average results and there would be others, who would have no hope. Maths education was the process of sorting out who was lucky, not-so-lucky and downright unlucky.
Thankfully, this erroneous and harmful idea no longer underpins Maths education, and it’s not an attitude our children should ever encounter in the Maths classrooms of today. Reams of research has attested to the fact that everyone can learn Maths and become proficient. It’s also shown that ‘Maths anxiety’ can be a real roadblock to any child’s potential in mastering Maths. However, for some parents, worries around their child’s Maths abilities may cause them to pour the family’s resources into extra Maths lessons, and also impact on their school choices.
Mark Anderson, Principal of Koa Academy, a high-engagement online school says, “I’m really passionate about how we approach Maths at Koa. In fact, more than any other subject, we have seen kids grow in confidence and skill in this area. Last year, for example, we had a boy, who had failed Grade 8 Maths at his local school in 2020, go on to complete two years’ worth of Maths with us in 2021. He wrote his final Grade 9 Maths exams and passed confidently, effectively catching up with his grade age. With a different approach, there are remedies available within the school environment.”
That ‘different approach’ includes mastery-based learning which is ideally suited to Maths education where the meaning of numbers and number concepts need to be understood rather than trying to rely on memorizing rules. Maths practice teaches kids how to apply principles to different problems rather than replicating calculations; and, importantly, mistakes are opportunities for reflective learning and doing it again until you get it – rather than never getting a second chance to master a Maths operation and trying to move on with a fundamental Maths learning deficit.
It turns out that digital platforms are adept at providing mastery-based learning in Maths. Anderson explains, “When you harness the real strengths of the digital space, Maths can really come alive! We use platforms which are designed specifically to teach Maths online. Content is broken up into focused ‘bite size’ chunks, which are immediately followed by checkpoints which help a learner to know whether they have grasped the concepts or need to revisit them. A learner progresses as they master each concept, rather than learning for 6 weeks only to write a test and find out that they have major gaps in their understanding. It means that you can try something, fail, learn and try it again. This builds confidence – and Maths is such a confidence subject! The platforms are also wrapped up in a gamified environment which is engaging and feels native to the online space. On top of that, at Koa, we know that every learner needs person-to-person academic support at times in Maths. So, we have daily bookable Teacher Time where a learner can book a session with their Pod Teacher or a Maths Subject Specialist to work together on their platform. They’re never alone, and their parents can monitor their kid’s progress daily but do not need to get involved in teaching their kids Maths.”
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