About the Project

Creating a mathematical mindset is dependent on having students think conceptually and flexibly about numbers. It is not enough for students to know the facts, they need to know the why behind it. This why is what will help students to have a mindset that allows them to see mathematics as a subject that promotes creativity and connection with the real world.

My Goal

My goal for this project is not to become the expert of how to help students develop mathematical mindsets, but instead to learn how to teach in a way that will foster that mindset. I am using this project as a space to try techniques and lessons to engage my students in their mathematical developments and share what I learn.

As well as sharing my personal experiences for this project, I chose to interview different teachers at my school to gain information from their experiences and compare these to what I find in my classroom.

What is a Mathematical Mindset?

It is important to understand that a mathematical mindset is created by many different aspects of being taught mathematics. I would argue that most adults were taught in a way that has created a stagnant and stunted mindset when it comes to math. Many of us were taught to use memorization as the main avenue of "understanding" math, but the truth is that memorization does not give much of an understanding at all. As educators, we need to move away from the ways that we were taught math so that we can foster curiosity and genuine understanding about mathematical concepts.

Mathematical mindset: a growth mindset in Mathematics that allows students to approach math with confidence and enthusiasm. It allows students to think creatively and realistically about math (Boaler 2016).

Some of the ways to foster the mathematical mindset in your math classes:

Encourage students to develop flexibility with numbers by teaching conceptually. When we teach, we call this number sense. In a study by Gray and Tall in 1994, it was found that the biggest difference between students who were considered low- and high-achieving was the ability to interact with numbers flexibly and conceptually. This flexibility can only come from a deep understanding of concepts.
Develop rich mathematical tasks. In Jo Boaler's book, she poses the following questions to guide the development of mathematical tasks that increase learning potential:
- Can you open the task to encourage multiple methods, pathways, and representations?
- Can you make it an inquiry task?
- Can you ask the problem before teaching the method?
- Can you add a visual component?
- Can you make it low floor and high ceiling?
- Can you add the requirement to convince and reason?
Create an equitable mathematics classroom. But how?
- Offer all students high-level content.
- Work to change ideas about who can achieve in mathematics.
- Encourage students to think deeply about mathematics.
- Teach students to work together.
- Give girls and students of colour additional encouragement to learn math and science.
- Eliminate homework.