We’ve all seen it happen to a child confronting long division, or a teenager grappling with geometry. We’ve even done it ourselves. The frustrated pencil drop, the defeated shoulder slump, and finally, the resigned proclamation: “I just can’t get this. I’m not a math person.”
But what does being a “math person” really mean? And more important, how can teachers help every student feel prepared and excited to tackle new concepts in mathematics?
According to Noah Heller, the idea that there are “math people” and “not math people” is a social construct and not based on inherent characteristics. It stems from the belief that math intelligence is a fixed trait, rather than something that grows and develops with hard work and opportunities to learn. But the notion of a “math person” is still a useful one for math teachers to consider when trying to develop lessons and classroom norms that foster perseverance in all students.
FORCED INTO MATHEMATICS
When students proclaim that they’re “not ‘math persons,’ that’s an indication that they feel outside of mathematics, that math doesn’t belong to them,” explains Heller, the master teacher in residence for mathematics at the Harvard Teachers Fellows program. “They feel like the math learning expected of them is something that they’re forced to do and memorize, or a way in which they’re asked to conform their thinking or cram for examinations. When students say they’re not ‘math persons,’ they mean that they don’t see mathematics as a useful practice that can help them interpret and navigate the world.”
DEVELOPING A MIND FOR MATH
Math intelligence — and therefore the traits of a “math person” — can be nurtured and enhanced, Heller says. Teachers can take steps to help students develop a growth mindset — the view, popularized by Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck, that it takes determination and persistence to achieve success (in math, in this case), not innate talent. Heller outlines some of those mindset-changing steps here:
Create opportunities for cooperative learning. When students learn from each other by discussing problem-solving strategies, they discover new techniques for approaching problems and new attitudes that help them persevere.
Give students the chance to productively struggle. Math lessons are often set up to value outcomes, which are either right or wrong. But rich problems take time to figure out. Teachers should give students the chance to interpret complex problems in their own way, and they should encourage students to try a new approach if they’ve hit a dead end.
Encourage participation, even if the student doesn’t have the right answer yet. “If there’s a threat of being wrong every time I raise my hand, and being wrong is a bad thing, then very quickly I decide math isn’t for me, I don’t like this, I’m not a smart person,” Heller explains. Teachers need to frame wrong answers as opportunities for learning, rather than as summative assessments of ability. When a student participates, he doesn’t have to feel sure he has the right answer — just confident that sharing his work will help move him in the right direction.
Re-envision math as a language. Math teachers, says Heller, can work to “create classrooms where learners are situated as insiders, where they have opportunities to construct knowledge so that they feel it belongs to them and is useful in their world.” To foster that environment, Heller likens math class to a language class. Math students should feel that they can claim ownership over mathematics in the same way English Language Learners learn to claim ownership over English.
Above all, to succeed in math classes and to feel motivated to pursue mathematics-related careers, students need to feel comfortable with and excited about mathematics — they need to feel like they, too, are math persons.Historia de la Universidad
University of California, Berkeley es la universidad más antigua fundada en el estado de California, y desde sus inicios ha sido un catalizador en el crecimiento económico y social de la innovación. Las raíces de esta institución se remontan a mediados del siglo XIX, cuando miles de buscadores de fortuna llegaron al estado de California atraídos por la fiebre del Oro.
La Constitución del estado de California, destacaba en 1849, el deseo de crear una universidad para contribuir con el conocimiento y la excelencia académica "para gloria y felicidad de las generaciones posteriores".
Dos décadas más tarde surge la universidad, en 1868 como resultado de la unión del College of California y el Agricultural, Mining, and Mechanical Arts College.
A comienzos del siglo XX, la institución universitaria comenzó a destacar en el panorama de la investigación científica: física, química y biología. De esta época es conocido el Proyecto Manhattan coordinado por el catedrático de física J. Robert Oppenheimer y cuyo objetivo final era el desarrollo de la primera bomba atómica.
En 1952, la universidad se reestructuró y se creó la figura del presidente que más tarde ocupó, Clark Kerr. Durante su mandato la universidad se convirtió en un referente para la investigación en el sistema educativo en el ámbito de la educación superior y desde 1960 ha servido de modelo para las demás instituciones de la nación.
A finales del siglo XX, la universidad ha destacado por la investigación genética y el desarrollo de la tecnología. Como ejemplo se puede destacar que en 1990, Mary-Claire King identificó el gen responsable del cáncer de mama hereditario.
Desde 1941 Oski es la mascota oficial de la universidad. Se trata de un oso que asiste a los partidos y anima a la afición.
En el ámbito de las telecomunicaciones, Berkeley ha ejercido una importante influencia internacional debido a los descubrimientos e investigaciones de sus científicos. En la década de 1970 se presentó el sistema operativo UNIX y posteriormente surgió el movimiento Open Source, basado en la creación colaborativa por medio de código abierto y que sería definitivo para el desarrollo de internet.
Para hacer frente a las complejas cuestiones jurídicas y sociales que rodean a la tecnología, se creó la escuela de derecho que representa los intereses de los consumidores en materia de propiedad intelectual, regulación de las comunicaciones y cuestiones de privacidad.
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