The Classroom, Stereotypes About Mathematics Abound

The aims and importance of learning provision for numeracy development are to ensure all students understand that maths is a vital part of everyday life and will continue to be used throughout their life. Primary schools will teach students to learn various methods and techniques to be able to reach the correct answer. The end goal means more students will be able to solve a mathematical problem, independently, using a method that suits them. They can then develop their learning to improve their knowledge and apply it to real life situations; such as counting in groups of numbers such as 5’s or 10’s, which in turn can be applied when paying for

Numeracy development is important for all children as maths is an important part of everyday life. The way in which maths is taught has changed greatly over the years. When I was at school we were taught one method to reach one answer. Now, particularly in early primary phase, children are taught different methods to reach an answer, which includes different methods of working out and which also develops their investigation skills. For example, by the time children reach year six, the different methods they would have been taught for addition would be number lines,

O’Brien, L.T., & Crandall, C.S. (2003) Stereotype threat and arousal: effects on women’s math performance. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29, 782-789.

Although one may argue that male students are distracted by female clothing in the classroom, this stereotype is inaccurate. The assumption that is being made when the rules are in place is that if girls are not covered, the learning of male students is at risk since they are not mature enough to control themselves in a learning environment. Ask guys around school and chances are, they do not think that the shoulders of the girl sitting in front of him distract from his learning. If the answer is yes, then they should be taught to not sexualize girls in that manor. Girls are not sexual objects and are not there for the pleasure of a guy. Eliana Dockterman in her article "Schools Are Still Slut-Shaming Girls While Enforcing Dress Code" insinuates

In a classroom with grey-blue carpet and starch white walls, my 3rd grade class and I sat nervously gripping our pencils. From my seat, the small American flag blocked the clock, but I was positive we had been sitting in silence for hours. Our teacher migrated between pods of desks and placed thin, light grey test booklets in front of each student. I reached forward to touch the pages that felt like the glossy outside of a newspaper. Mrs. Lewis’s navy heels clicked back to the front of the room and she meticulously straightened the remaining tests in her hands. “Please keep your hands in your lap until I tell you to begin,” she said before turning around. Our hands quickly retreated into our laps. She continued, “The results are only for us

Since I remember I have not been a talkative person. While I was growing up, I have observed individuals that are generally quiet in the classroom and, at some point during class, they get confident enough to share their ideas with the rest of the students. Ideas that they have been thinking the whole year. People, called by our society bullies, appear at the scene laughing

“Hurry up everybody.” “Climb into your seats.” “I hear her pounding footsteps.” “She’s almost here!”

Imagine this, the teacher is going over a lesson about word parts. The teacher goes over prefixes, and suffixes. Jimmy gets tired of listening to the teacher and pulls up his computer. Everyone else in the class is listening to the lesson, but Jimmy goes on the web. The teacher notices Jimmy on the computer, but does not say a word, as he knows soon Jimmy will learn his lesson. The kids are staring at Jimmy and laughing, but the teacher gets them on task. They take a blank piece of lined paper out of their binders and start taking important notes. Jimmy decides not to care and keep on browsing the web. He looks at shoes, basketball equipment, and the football playoff scores. The kids in the class finish taking notes, but the teacher knows how to get Jimmy’s attention.

For pupils to use a calculator effectively requires a sound knowledge of number. As children learn how to enter simple one step calculations that involve whole numbers, they can explore

Although this is just a brief description of a typical lesson from the Framework guidelines of the Numeracy Strategy, it is clear that the importance of mathematics is stressed over and over again. This is evident where the Framework continually stresses the importance of linking mathematics wherever possible. The Framework suggests that children should identify between mathematics and other subject areas for e.g. in geography map reading will require calculations of measures and angles etc. Teachers are encouraged to bring to the attention of their pupils where these links can be

Teaching mathematics to these can be challenging as they lack a proper foundation in numeracy. Some, who lack interests in mathematics, tend to be less cooperative and may endeavour to do as little as possible. However, research have shown that adolescent are most likely be engaged with a learning session if they can relate to the content; and more importantly, if they can perceive value in what they learn.

In my country, women are not important and are not placed in influential positions, thus, being there would have deprived me of getting an education that would satiate my hunger for knowledge and wisdom, the hunger to be something and help the world better itself. As a woman, I would like to be an engineer and break all stereotypes that restrict women from pursuing an education in math. I was born in Iraq, the country of war, and within that country, women are meant for childbirth and care giving. There was no chance at an education that empowered women in the math field, or a male dominant field. During the time that I lived there, which was during the American-Iraq war, an opportunity for education was even tougher to chase after due to the danger that lied within the country. Although I was an

During the laboratory, women and men, who are both equally talented at math, were given the same difficult math test. Stereotypically, women don't perform as well as the men. Because of the stereotype, women felt pressure and didn't do as good as the men. This led to underperformance because women felt pressure that they need to do well and worried about it the whole time while taking the test. When they removed the stereotype before the test, women performed as well as the men. They did this by informing both women and men that women always do as good as men on this math test. Upon hearing this, women felt no more pressure and focused on the test.

Teaching students effectively in areas of multiplicative thinking, fractions and decimals requires teachers to have a true understanding of the concepts and best ways to develop students understanding. It is also vital that teachers understand the importance of conceptual understanding and the success this often provides for many students opposed to just being taught the procedures (Reys et al., ch. 12.1). It will be further looked at the important factors to remember when developing a solid conceptual understanding and connection to multiplicative thinking, fractions and decimals.

Stereotyping also happens in the school and in this section will be looking at stereotype threat involving race and gender and the effects it has on teaching and learning throughout secondary education, especially for the case of mathematics. It is something that has been a part of the education system for a long time and only recently does it seem that we are beginning to understand it. The term was coined by Steele and Aronson who, in 1995, conducted the first experiment into the performance of African Americans under stereotype threat. Since then there has been a lot of research in this area and they all seem to draw similar conclusions. We will be looking at the views of the author and linking these with various pieces of literature and real life examples.