Why are majority of Africans scared of mathematics?

“Mathematics is the language in which God has written the universe”

― Galileo Galilei

Research states that the way math is taught in schools and how its conceptualized as a subject hasseverely impaired African children’s ability to learn and understand math.

From my experience I have found that most children have a fundamental misunderstanding of what math is and what it can do. Once I break it down as a language, they can begin to understand it better and swe how relatable it is .

Majority of their mistakes come fromspending lots of time memorizing anddwelling upon solving problems fast. Then they miss large gaps in a subject that is focused upon on learning concepts turn by turn.

It comes as no surprise to me that there are these large gaps.  In the previous STEM bootcamp our social innovation enterprise held last year; majority of our children  couldn’t determine the cost of carpeting when given its dimensions and price persquare meter.

From our observation, a lot of our children are suffering from math anxiety and it starts real early.

I have drawn some conclusions as to the reasons for this anxiety, it has to do with how math is presented as a subject, how it’s taught, and what weexpect from our African children.

We need to change our collective view of math.

Immediately one mentions math, the next the first things that comes to many people’s minds when they think about math is rote memorization, impracticability, and the old slacker adage, “When am I ever going to need to use this?” The quadratic formula, sines, and cosines have gotten a bad rap and taken a verbal beating by an innumerable amount of high schoolers for probably more than a century.

The vast majority of people who haven’t had to use an equation since their senior year or cram session in college just don’t see the value in math. That’s because they fundamentally misunderstand what mathematics is.

Neil deGrasse Tyson put it succinctly when he said, “Math is the language of the universe. So the more equations you know, the more you can converse with the cosmos.”

Now, that’s part of the equation, but not all of it. Math, in a sense, is a way to speak and manipulate the world in a logic- and reason-based system using a specialized written language.

It is the language of numbers, quantity, and space, and it’s used in applications for engineering, physics, and so on. It’s doubtful that math is presented this way to children or students at an early age. But that’s just one part of the problem with how we approach math.

Why it’s easy to fall behind in math

Professor Po-Shen Loh at Carnegie Mellon believes that everyone is a math person; all they lack is proper instruction. He went on to say that math is a language that builds upon itself, and not understanding the foundations of math is like not understanding the roots and structure of a language.

Essentially if a student doesn’t catch on in their first years of instruction, it’s going to be very difficult for them to reverse course and excel later on down the line. He believes it is essential to catch this early on and address it before a student’s issues with math reach a point where they feel “they’re just not good at math.”

Professor Loh goes on to say that “Mathematics is the principles of reasoning. There are ways to show you how these basic building blocks of reasoning can be used to deduce surprising and difficult things.”

One major reason that mathematics is difficult to understand is because it is a network of prerequisites. Everything, all of the concepts, are chained in sequences of dependencies.

If you miss an important concept earlier on—say, not being able to understand how to chart a simple algebraic equation on a line graph, you’ll have no idea how to go on to charting even more complicated equations.

Loh goes on to say that this is much more prevalent in mathematics than history, for example. If you didn’t fully understand the War of 1812, it’s not going to impact how you learn about the Civil War—aside from the occasional historical patterns you may or may not recognize, of course.

The way to address this is to provide a learning environment for everyone that moves at their own pace, to make sure to fill in the gaps, and to catch those lapses in understanding before they get out of control.

And if you’re already in too deep, say, as a college grad or just an adult who wants to learn… well, it’s time to start from square one.

A faulty learning and teaching methodology

A few years back, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) dug a little deeper into how math is taught. A 2012 assessment questioned how students approach the subject. Their responses were categorized in three learning styles: some students relied mostly on memorization, others tried to relate new concepts to ones they’ve already learned, and finally, some used a self-monitoring approach in which they evaluated their understanding and focused on concepts they had yet to learn.

Without much of a surprise, it turned out that the memorizers were the least likely to achieve high scores and understanding. The United States ranked in the top three for this learning method. A more in-depth look showed that memorizers were about a half year behind students who used either relational or self-monitoring strategies.

Research has shown and most likely loads of anecdotal evidence shows that most math classrooms in the United States equate comprehension and skill with speed. Students who are the fastest on their time tables race against the clock to see how fast they can write down their memorized lines. This is not learning, this is not comprehension.

Studies show that stress interferes with the part of our brain we use to manipulate mathematical facts.

Studies have shown that children manipulate math facts with their working memory, an area of the brain that will go offline when they experience stress.

Now put together 45-minute timed tests in a condensed school year or semester combined with math anxiety, faulty instruction and expectations, poor learning methods, potential lapses in the fundamentals, and the problems start to pile up. As a result, the part of the brain responsible for mathematical thinking literally shuts off, and you start to see why Americans are so bad at math.

Leading mathematician Laurent Schwartz believed for many years that he was a slow thinker in math and even believed that he was stupid. That is until he realized that “What is important is to deeply understand things and their relations to each other. This is where intelligence lies. The fact of being quick or slow isn’t really relevant.”

Why new methods of teaching math aren’t working

Many potentially great minds have probably been turned off by the fast-paced timed tests and wonky teaching methods presented through the years. The language of math needs to be presented in a way that shows how it connects to the world and demonstrates its great capacity for understanding and manipulating reality.

If more people could tap into this infinite matrix of power, they’d be able to engage in the wondrous world of math and unlock unknown potentials. It’s not for a lack of trying that we’ve failed; it comes down to instruction yet again.

What is needed is a fundamental shift in how we view mathematics as a subject so we can rethink and realize how beneficial it is across the board. In addition, we need to make sure that no student gets left behind when foundational math concepts are taught.

Adetola Salau; Global Educator / International Speaker / Author/ Social Entrepreneur/ Innovative Thinker/Future Readiness Advocate/ STEM Certified Trainer

She is an Advocate of STEM Education and is Passionate about Education reform. She is an innovative thinker and strives for our society & continent as a whole to reclaim it’s greatness.

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