Mathematical Mindsets offers the right tactics and exercises to help parents and instructors reassure all children that math is fun and that they can excel at it. Jo Boaler is a mathematics lecturer, researcher, and authority in teaching mathematics (Boaler, 2022). She looked at the reasons why students have difficulty in math classes and why they dislike them. She has tracked thousands of children through middle and high schools to examine their learning processes and discover the most efficient approaches to help all kids reach their math capacity.
What occurs in classrooms and at home diverges from what research has proven to be effective for teaching math. This book fills that gap by translating study findings into practical exercises and suggestions. Boaler explains how pupils may transition from identity to strong self-confidence, which is so vital for math learning, using math teaching and parental practices. Carol Dweck’s notion of “mindset” is translated into this book (Boaler, 2022). Boaler outlines the actions that parents, educators, and schools must take to enhance math instruction for all students.
The main factor I was aware of before reading the book is how our brain perceives mathematical processes. In reality, numeracy is an innate talent that individuals possess from infancy and that may be further developed through formal schooling, according to the evolution of number cognition. Both languages and arithmetic can be understood and used by human minds. While mathematical processes may share conceptual and syntactic norms with language or depend on language for exact computations, the neurological underpinnings of creating a financial are eventually different from reading comprehension. People employ unique, specialized cortical networks to process mathematics or interpret language.
Words and numbers have a lot in common and are equally crucial for understanding and use in the human brain. Unsurprisingly, both functions use the same brain regions for execution. Nevertheless, there are numerous more ways in which the comprehension and manipulation of numbers and words vary, including the location of the associated brain activity. For instance, the brain’s left temporal lobe handles most machine translation. Contrarily, the parietal, cortical, sagittal, and white matter of both the left and premotor cortex are involved in mathematical processing, which is more extensive in the brain. However, there are also other topics that I heard about before reading the study.
Before starting to study this book, I was a little familiar with the idea of collaborative problem-solving. Individuals who can solve complex problems and do it cooperatively with others by combining their thoughts and efforts are in high demand in today’s businesses. Through tools such as email and online conferences, digitalization is expanding professional and political collaboration opportunities, such as volunteering and social media. Since cooperative situations may arise when students leave school and enter the workforce and the wider world, it is anticipated that they will be prepared to succeed in them.
Due to its many benefits over individual problem solving, including the ability to split work equally, the ability to draw on a variety of viewpoints and perspectives, and the ability for group members to support and motivate one another, collaborative problem solving is becoming more and more recognized as a crucial skill. Collaboration, nevertheless, may also swiftly result in problems with interaction, interpersonal conflict, and inefficiency if it is not well handled. Therefore, it is crucial that students acquire the abilities required to participate successfully in cooperative problem-solving. This helps improve the classroom atmosphere and gives all children access to education.
All children should be able to access mathematics, and teachers have the chance to do so. In addition to addressing education, Mathematical Mindsets offer growth-mindset evaluation tools. As I noticed, the book promotes instilling responsibility and self-awareness in readers. These methods assist students in understanding their learning objectives and learning progression. I believe that in order to assist students in grasping the difference between where they are and where they should be, Boaler emphasizes the value of instructor assessment (Boaler, 2022). Moreover, she offers guidance on reviewing to teachers who must provide grades while explaining why formative assessment is more beneficial than grading. The shift from judgment to feedback has a powerful and beneficial influence on students’ commitment, self-belief, and better learning paths.
In addition to offering a wealth of resources for use by new and seasoned educators alike, managers, trainers, families, and higher education professors, Mathematical Mindsets also strongly encourages in-depth debate in book group sessions (Boaler, 2022). I noticed that the author concludes by enabling instructors to share encouraging messages with disengaged children about achievement and the importance of perseverance and strenuous effort. All children should be able to access mathematics, and the teaching staff has the chance to do so. Boaler agrees that teaching with an egalitarian development mentality is more complex than traditional teaching, but she also makes the case that when kids succeed, it becomes more significant and gratifying for instructors (Boaler, 2022). I would like to add to this study evaluation of theories not only of teachers but also of children, and I think this will show the real potential of this study. The most important question that may arise after reading this book is how these theories are applied in modern education and whether these theories are applicable everywhere around the world, or whether mentality can affect the perception of mathematics.
Reference
Boaler, J. (2022). Mathematical mindsets: Unleashing students’ potential through creative mathematics, inspiring messages, and innovative teaching. John Wiley & Sons.