Abstract
In the present paper, we focus on ways to improve college students’ emotions and attitudes toward mathematics, and on fruitful outcomes of such changes from the students’ prospective. Our sources are students’ essays on the above topic as well as a number of class discussions. What helps to prevent learners from giving up never allowing them to surrender to insecurities or doubt, but motivate to persist? How to change learners’ thoughts on their own capabilities? How to be consistently positive and encouraging, making students feel inspired, motivated and confident in their studies? How to bring out the best in your students, allowing them to reach their full potential? A selection of various teaching and pedagogical findings and approaches (including informal learning and storytelling) implemented in our classes is under consideration in the paper. “My emotional attachment to mathematics has granted me a new set of lenses, in which I see the world”, one of my students wrote. “From the design of nature, to the design of machines, buildings, and processes, math is always involved and to have this new thirst for knowledge and application has been truly one of the most rewarding experiences in my life, because I never thought it would be possible for me. It is almost like a game I have never played. It fills me with wonder and amazement, joy and giddy, because something I never thought would be my strength is finally awakening inside of me.”
Presenters
Irina PeterburgskyProfessor, Mathematics and Computer Science, Suffolk University, Massachusetts, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Science, Mathematics and Technology Learning
KEYWORDS
Mathematics, Attitude, Students’ Prospective, Motivation, Full Potentials
