You're teaching math to a group of students who are struggling. How can you make the subject more engaging?

Mathematics as a subject needs a lot of practice. Because it is a practical subject and not a theoretical one. As a leader, you should connect the concepts with real-life problems. Your students should be aware of how the particular math problem helps in solving real-life issues such as business or sports. Once they are aware of practical relevance, the learning becomes easier.

One thing I found really useful is storytelling. I guess this is a skill a teacher can develop with experience in time, especially as focusing on connecting mathematics with real-world/life 'situations'. Another point to consider is the way we talk about 'problems' which often gives students the feeling of a 'struggle'. Is it not understandable that some students may not like this 'struggle'? Does every student have to enjoy challanging situations? My answer is "No, they do not have to." If we are all different, we cannot expect every student to embrace challanges or problems. Instead we can create situations for our students which they can relate to as a starting point.

The mechanics of teaching math to a group depends on the type of students: math, science/engineering, business majors, etc. A good teacher can engage 60% to 80% of students in a group using technology, word problems relevant to the students' life experiences, and commonplace strategies. In my experience, the teacher may not be able to wake up and engage the remaining 20%+. Paying attention to this group sends the others to sleep. An effective strategy is to identify struggling students, spread them in groups that the teacher forms. Well formulated homework-type problems should be given to the class to be resolved within the group during the last segment of class. Better motivated students in a group may help to bring up the struggling ones.

Mathematics is a language. Teach it like one and they began using it in everyday life. Teach what the symbols mean, say, and do. Have them explain what the symbols mean and say and do. Have them read the symbols aloud and explain what the symbols mean. This very often provides them the next step of what to do.

I agree, story telling is the best tool to teach languages too!! Especially to the EAL students. They learn quicker and are engaged too. It becomes interactive learning.

Interactivity through technology is growing ever more widely available and represents a real step change in what we can offer as education. Exciting tools like GeoGebra and Desmos offer great opportunities for enhancing school-level mathematics, while newer technologies like VisualPDE enable live interaction with undergraduate/research-level applied mathematics (disclaimer: VisualPDE is part of my research). If more people work on developing mathematics-specific tools for teaching, we can give next-generation tools to the next generation of mathematicians.

While explaining some difficult concepts in mathematics, one can use many trusted educational websites, apps, and games, which enables experiential learning and engages the learner to understand the concepts. I have seen many tutors using various tools to teach concepts like geometry, and mensuration. You can also create your own concept tutorials and use these as multimedia to be used by learners as future revision resources.

While technology has come a long way, and there are great technology tools to help teach math, technology does not reach all struggling students. Students who learn differently don’t always benefit from technology based learning. I taught math at a private school, and hands on learning made a huge difference for many who struggled. In teaching algebra students often struggle with positive and negative integers and how to use them correctly in operations. So we went to the gym, and made a giant number line on the floor. They would walk the number line, reversing direction for each negative symbol or subtraction sign. They got it, even moving their head back-n-forth while taking tests. Technology doesn’t work for everyone who struggles!!!

Technology can be a great tool when teaching mathematics. For example when working on Geometry problems instead of the 2D image the teacher is restrained when using a traditional whiteboard, using a smart board and an appropriate presentation tool 3D view of the problem and possible outcomes can be modelled. Online maths games can be used to make maths a fun learning experience.

I have two perfect examples for the incorporation of technology in math education. Firstly, I would like to mention the work of Inspired Online Schools, King's Interhigh, in their Virtual Reality experiences. When we step into our math lessons using this immersive experience, I can see how the theoretical concepts become clearer to most of my classmates. For instance, to study the behavior of functions, we were looking at a rollercoaster! Secondly, looking at the community in PhysicsBeyond, we have encountered that math video games can actually enhance our perception and abstraction to understand concepts. For instance, when talking about Non-Euclidean Geometry, we found "HyperRogue" to learn more about the 2D hyperbolic plane.

In education, personalisation and understanding of the student profile are essential to cater to their abilities and propel them to the next level. It is not only about intelligence as most people would think but about interest, motivation, and abilities; abstract reasoning, visual thinking, etc. The combination of these attributes is something that cannot be quantitatively measured, as it will also depend on the environment, on the teacher, on the mental health of the student, etc. To be able to identify what the student needs when studying mathematics is an incredibly enriching opportunity for both the teacher/mentor and the student, as more ideas flow, the pace is different, and there is better communication and output for both ends.

Differentiated instruction and providing scaffolding or accommodation, when required, are essential to ensure that the needs of students with different learning needs are met. For example, some students may find it difficult to memorise the multiplication chart. For them you provide a chart and allow them to master the concepts. For students with dyslexia reading word problems can be difficult. So simplified word problems as well as the use of text-to-speech can be allowed. Students with dyscalculia who have very specific learning needs in maths should be provided a range of tools from curriculum adjustments to assistive technology.

Math is a subject, that requires lots of understanding and every 3 out of 4 children in the world have math phobia!! The magic to make children fall in love with math lies in the hands of the teachers, as teachers we should always curate the best lesson plans suiting the needs of varying learning styles and learning needs of students! Thanks to technology,we can integrate lots of activities and quizzes,which makes math a fun learning experience,which indirectly fosters conceptual understanding!!

Sometimes just changing how you explain the problem is all you need to do to have a student go from frustration to a better understanding. I know with my brother, the only way to get him to understand math was food-related problems, like tactile candy counting (subtraction you can eat!). Even recently, explaining math to college students, slightly altering the method you try to explain a problem can make the biggest difference. The important part is to try to help them understand better!

Through my specialized research during my teaching degree in France, I've honed strategies to enhance learning. - Diagnostic assessments: I begin with assessments to identify gaps and tailor lessons accordingly. - Strategic grouping: students work in groups aligned with their needs, promoting effective peer learning. - Engaging activities: from games to real-life problems, I use diverse methods to demystify complex concepts. - Ongoing feedback: Continuous, personalized feedback helps build confidence and understanding. - Adaptive teaching: I regularly refine my methods to meet the dynamic needs of my students.

Collaboration not only enhances math but also promotes teamwork and communication, essential for success in various aspects of life. It's a win-win approach to learning!

To enhance learners' skills like critical thinking, problem-solving, creative thinking, effective communication and more, peer or collaborative learning can be a good way that provide outcomes. This helps a tutor form various strategies to deal with the recommendation pathways for improving outcomes.

Peer tutoring is a great option to consolidate knowledge, applying the Feynman Technique. It also helps the student crystallise their ideas as they try to explain it to others. Project-based learning is also on my list, as it directly addresses the interests of the students to work toward a common objective, and when it is interdisciplinary, the experience and sharing of different views and discussions lead to a better understanding of the subject as more connections are made within knowledge. I would also add a researcher's viewpoint learning, the methodology used in BeyondResearch where the students are working every week on abstract high-level problems in small groups, and each of them brings their own knowledge and understanding.

What I really enjoyed in BeyondResearch was the fact that our success in mathematics opens the doors to new concepts and ideas. Our mentor's approach was to let us innovate in our problem-solving methodology, and whenever we got to an interesting remark or something that was really outstanding, he would encourage us to pursue it further with more research questions so we could write articles or papers to share how we see these notions. This boosted my enthusiasm and always made me more and more motivated to continue in my math education as I was seeing how my abstract ideas can become something concrete and intertwine with previous and new knowledge from others.

Recognise the small efforts made by the learner and reward them. Track their progress, and understand their learning patterns, behaviour and core interest areas. Make them understand that small efforts pay off.

Creating a culture of success is very important. How do we learn and teach together as a group and a team so that the students who are struggling feel heard and less frustration about the harder bits of the math questions. Usually it's one or two bits of the lesson that weren't understood or communicated and can go back and work on the harder areas until everyone understands.

En mi experiencia, demostrar que las matemáticas son fascinantes y que los procesos mentales que se adquieren durante su aprendizaje son habilidades valiosas para prácticamente cualquier área en la vida, abren a los estudiantes nuevas posibilidades y despiertan su interés desde otra perspectiva, dejando afuera el lado técnico, difícil o tedioso. Puedo decir además que mostrar interés personal por el aprendizaje de cada estudiante hace que se sientan comprometidos con su propio proceso, mostrando una actitud de mayor disposición al aprendizaje y a la creatividad.

One effective strategy I find helpful in teaching involves role-playing. Despite the challenges of preparation in our busy schedules, the benefits make it worthwhile. For instance, for the topic percentages, I created three sets of cards: one with various money amounts (in different currencies), one with percentage amounts, and one with situations like decrease or increase. Students form small groups, randomly pick a card from each set, and calculate the rise or loss in their money. The hands-on, collaborative nature fosters critical thinking and teamwork skills. This approach accommodates diverse learning styles and enhances students' enthusiasm for mathematics through real-world applications.

Teachers should always be enthusiastic. Positivity and enthusiasm are contagious. So if a teacher is able to create a positive learning atmosphere, half of the work is done. Students open up with such teachers and it is very easy to teach any topic.

I find that modeling enthusiasm goes hand-in-hand with modeling curiosity. We are naturally curious as young children, but we begin to lose that curiosity over time, for various cultural/societal/practical reasons; quite honestly, it's a travesty. Showing students that you learned mathematics because you wanted to learn the language that the universe speaks can help to inspire them to put forth more effort than they would if they were only learning to pass a test. If they see the beauty and significance of mathematics and how enthralled by it you are, it is often the spark needed to rekindle some of that childlike wonder and curiosity that changes the game. I write this with high-school kids in mind, though I hope it would apply to others!

Demonstrate to the students that it's fun & fascinating. Have the teachers paid well so they have the time & resources to provide quality education. More funding on what matters such as tools, quality tutors, quality material that isn't all just random pictures on current textbooks. Modernize it all. Gamification with demonstration. Reduce the admins and fund the quality of the actual education. We have money for school sports but not for what tax payers money is supposed to "fund". Get rid of memorization only. Teach and help students learn how, why... provide free tutoring as much as needed, value the different learning styles due to disabilities or neurodivergence... too condense, ran out of words.

Students struggling at Maths should always receive a classroom environment that is a “safe space to make mistakes.” Ideally, teachers talking about their difficulties also reinforces that “productive struggle” is an important phase of learning big ideas in maths! “Maths anxiety” is the biggest monster for teachers, commonly arising from excessive focus on speed and accuracy. To alleviate this, it is important to take time to fill gaps in prior knowledge and periodically establish deep conceptual connections. On a personal note: parents or nonmaths teachers maintaining the narrative of “I am not a maths person” reduces the beauty and logic of this discipline to a mere performance based verdict, which must be consciously avoided!

I find that it's important to make sure that students understand that they unequivocally do not "hate math." "I hate math," is a common refrain from struggling students, but it misses the mark by a substantial margin. There is no reason to hate math; it is morally neutral and totally inert. What they hate is either the feeling of struggling, or the shame of perceived failure. If it is the latter, you can talk to them about how lacking a full and immediate grasp of a complex topic is normal, and not shameful at all. If it is the former, have them differentiate between productive and unproductive struggling, so they can calibrate their response. Resilience is needed for the productive sort, while targeted assistance is required otherwise.

Represent the content in different ways (sometimes simultaneously). As a student, much of the mathematics I was taught was represented as a list of formulae to memorize. All numbers and letters with little meaning. When I became a mathematics teacher, I began to try to make linkages between Number concepts, Algebra and Geometry. The statement 'a picture is worth a thousand words' comes to mind here. As I used Geometry to represent concepts, they made more sense for me and my students. As we discussed how parts of an equation was represented in a chart, graph, or picture, students' understanding (as well as my own) became deeper. This helped us minimise the struggle.

I grow up learning Maths the Asian way - lots of drilling, extremely fast calculation. I'm a trained human calculator, just mechanically processing the info using tested method without the need to judge or decide what should I do. It was only when I was in the teachers' training college, I truly "learn" Maths. My rapid calculation can only get me that far, but it was when I totally can explain the different concepts of Maths, I went beyond. I had a very good Maths lecturer who opened up my awareness to critical thinking. The fast calculation came in handy, but it was the understanding of concept that made me a good Maths teacher.