Mathematics has become an area of focus within our school, board and across the province. The following tips have been shared by our Program Department and I wanted to pass them along to you:
Promoting a Positive Attitude in Mathematics
The National Research Council (2001) identified Productive Disposition as one of the five key attributes of successful mathematicians. Productive Disposition supports all the understanding, skills, strategy, and adaptive reasoning that are necessary to succeed. So, how can we, as the caring adults in our children’s lives, support a Productive Disposition? We can value a growth mindset!
Consider these suggestions:
- Praise the effort, not the person.
- The more they work, the smarter they get
- Celebrate mistakes.
- Mistakes lead to learning; allow for some struggle and recognize the diligence in your child
- Value learning over performance.
- Math is much more than right or wrong answers
- Encourage questions & connections.
- Questions and seeking connections lead to thinking and seeing big ideas
- Math is a creative subject.
- Encourage different ways of showing and knowing –this leads to understanding
- Value Depth over Speed
- Pushing for fast computations causes anxiety; value the reasoning that comes from thoughtful reflection
Here is a graphic that shows what Productive Disposition looks like to a teacher and a student. It might help explain the concept some more.
