How Can I Get my Students to Succeed? (Part 1)

Doing well in math class relies on two very separate skills: mathematical curiosity, and reading your teacher's mind.

This is advice I have imparted on every one of my tutoring students, often repeatedly. I don't know exactly where it came from or why it's so important to me as an educator, but I have my suspicions.

This article is written in two parts: part 1 outlines the problem, and part 2 outlines the solution. If you are concerned with success strategies, I'd recommend skipping to part 2.

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My Disability Story

I am about to disclose some personal disability information. I preface this by stating that my disclosure is in line with the second principle of the disability justice movement which is, in part, about "highlighting the perspectives of those who are most impacted by the systems we fight against." 'Most impacted' is hard to define, and I disclose my disability with the understanding that we all have intersectional identities; though my disability is a big part of my life, I recognize that many people are afforded less access than me within ableist spaces. I encourage any reader to regularly seek out perspectives from people with disabilities or other marginalized identities.

Growing up, I struggled with an unrecognized neurodevelopmental disorder. I was diagnosed as a young adolescent with comorbid disorders—endocrine, personality, mood—as my body and brain tried to fit into a confusing world. Many social norms did not come naturally to me, which is common for neurodivergent individuals. To minimize embarassment, I became an expert mimicker.

School for me, as for most people, was a social training ground. I struggled to reconcile overt messages about authentically being myself when most people quietly expected me to behave a specific way. I learned how to mask, a defensive behavior that is often necessary for people with differences to hide their impulses so that they can exist in typical social spaces. I was so ashamed of myself that my mask became my priority, and I lost track of who I really was.

Back to Success in the Math Classroom...

Many students are stressed out by math because it doesn't come naturally. This was not my personal experience. Still, I can sympathize with math anxiety because I know what it's like to be confused and subsequently ashamed. The modern classroom is rife with well-meaning individualized supports (for example, encouraing mathematical mindsets) that do not address the systemic stressors that make the classroom a high stakes environment where only few succeed. To relate back to my personal story, these high stakes are often felt rather than explained. I notice a strange math parallel to my social struggles in my students. For example, some students anxiously blurt out random answers, hoping that the next thing they say will be the answer I'm expecting. These students are not bad at math, just stressed and confused about the context. Regardless, they internalize shame.

I think part of student confusion can be chalked up to the fact that most people, including math teachers, are very confused about what math is. Paul Lockhart, a math educator who I overquote because he is such a good communicator, wrote about this confusion in A Mathematicians Lament:

The cultural problem is a self-perpetuating monster: students learn about math from their teachers, and teachers learn about it from their teachers, so this lack of understanding and appreciation for mathematics in our culture replicates itself indefinitely. Worse, the perpetuation of this “pseudo-mathematics,” this emphasis on the accurate yet mindless manipulation of symbols, creates its own culture and its own set of values. Those who have become adept at it derive a great deal of self-esteem from their success. The last thing they want to hear is that math is really about raw creativity and aesthetic sensitivity.

I agree with Lockhart, that what we societally understand to be math education is "pseudo-mathematics." The culture that pseudo-mathematics promotes is one of consumption, conformity, and ruthless competition. The stakes are high: those who cannot "master mathematical skills" are doomed to threaten the very future of America!

If the cultural subtext of math is that it's a high stakes race, we can't help all students win by tweaking our teaching strategies or promoting positive thinking. We can't lower the stakes if something has high stakes by definition. This is like telling a cyclist they can win the Tour De France by just believing in the idea of a bicycle. You need an actual bicycle to win a bicycle race. (unless you are Pee-Wee Herman who did win the Tour de France in his imagination)

And math is high stakes! If a student gets all A's in math, the world will see that student as very intelligent. It doesn't matter that this particular student is just a very good direction follower with no independent thinking skills.

Crosstraining While Racing

This whole math teacher thing is starting to sound impossible and soul-sucking. Why in the world am I still doing it?

I'm doing it because I love math. Not pseudo-math, but math as a sacred art (although I do enjoy the self-esteem boost from succeeding at pseudo-math.) I also love empowering young people, and pseudo-math is often an entry ticket to positions of societal power. I find teaching math to be immensely rewarding because I can share what I love while preparing young people to succeed.

The trick to this all working out is rather simple: transparency. When I teach math seperate from pseudo-math, I concentrate most student math woes into one or the other. I try to focus about half of my time teaching actual mathematics, and the other half directly teaching students to succeed in the race.

I return to my Tour de France analogy. Suppose a cyclist trains for the Tour de France. Instead of imagining a bike every day, he can practice on a real bike half of the days. On the other half, he ignores cycling entirely, opting instead to hike in a beautiful forest with family and friends. On those days, the cyclist is still developing useful muscle-tone and willpower.

Undoubtedly, some students will enjoy hiking more than cycling. Some students will enjoy cycling more than hiking. Some students will hate all this outdoorsy stuff and opt to go read a book. The important piece is that being transparent about the politics of math education gives students the power to choose. When I masked as a young person, I didn't realize I could take it off in trusted spaces. This power to understand multiple meanings of math education is the power to skillfully develop both a competitive mask and an understanding of authentic curiosity.

Continue to part 2 for some useful advice.