The math classroom matters. The environment that is created for the students when they enter and experience the math classroom is crucial. When I talk about the environment I really mean the mental environment. How one physically organizes and decorates the classroom can impact the mental environment, but it really comes down to how the students feel when they sit down and begin to learn math.
Students need to feel safe to make mistakes.The importance of speed needs to be eliminated. A growth mindset, as opposed to a fixed mindset, needs to be taught and encouraged. These three ideas will almost certainly run counter to a student's pre-existing ideas about the math classroom, so they will have to be explicitly taught and modelled. Mistakes will have to be celebrated, the teacher will need to prove to students that all are capable of learning math and growing as a person, and assessment practices will need to change.
To stick with this assessment idea a moment longer. What does it mean to be successful in the math classroom. Traditionally it means getting through the curriculum and doing well on math tests. Is that really creating students that will have successful careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math? Of course not. Our assessment practices need to encourage a growth mindset by providing positive individual feedback. We need to stop moving through the curriculum before all students have experienced success with the content.
Just to reiterate, the ideas above are coming from Stanford math professors. More to come...
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