Month: January 2023

Teachers experience many issues in the classroom: an extensive range of aptitudes, deficiency of support or materials, big classroom sizes, time limitations, and more. But possibly one of the strenuous barriers is the fear of mathematics in students. Maths-phobia can simply convert into students betraying anxiety, a lack of approach, and even confidence issues.

A study has found that maths anxiety is connected to inferior maths performance, and can make enlightening the subject a daily pain. So how can teachers guide students to combat their fear of maths? How can they implant excitement in a subject that so many students get frightened of?

Build Confidence

Unsurprisingly, confidence is key in students’ agitation toward the maths subject. Earlier adverse incidents with the subject can take it to a bad and fatalistic attitude. To defeat this, as a teacher you should offer students with daily confidence-building practices that look energizing and entitle all students to perform well in maths subjects and prepare for International Maths Olympiad Challenge. This enhancement in confidence and self-esteem can reduce anxiety and fear, as students feel more and more competent and inspired.

Nourish Students’ Basic Skills

Associated closely with building confidence is bracing students’ basic numerical competency. Providing students chances to practice and upgrade critical skills for quantitative flow is necessary: when students don’t have the fundamental skills at hand, their working capabilities are pushed, which can be both disturbing and discouraging. It would help if you got students to practice mental maths and basic maths skills daily, incorporating them into games, quizzes, maths fun tests, maths Olympiad preparation, and warm-up activities.

Use Step-By-Step Process

There is proof that even intellectual maths students can experience burden and be overwhelmed when there are too many details at once and insufficient time to practice. It’s a better idea to part the resources into small exercises so that the maths olympiad students are able to understand and be adept at one step before continuing to the next.

Develop a Growth Mindset

Studies and publications on ‘growth mindset’ – the trust that our abilities can be advanced– have lightened up the role of student endeavor and self-awareness and acquired a significant foundation in educational practice. Motivating maths students to take challenges and have a growth mindset is inspiring. By offering students maths sample papers that get tough, you can show them they can overcome any obstacle through concentration and regular practice.

Attitude of Teachers

Last but surely not least, a teacher’s approach toward teaching mathematics can greatly impact students’ lives. Just as we request teachers to display a love of reading when it is about literature, we must also uplift maths teachers to exhibit excitement toward maths teaching. Teachers are the main pillars in building a positive and exciting learning atmosphere, such as by introducing maths puzzles and games into simplifications and examples.

Conclusion

By showing excitement and appreciation for mathematics, teachers can also develop a healthy relationship with the students to make them comfortable learning maths. And if teachers aren’t entirely comfortable with students themselves, a better recommendation is to invest in personal development. Learning how to teach maths subjects and connect students in ways that develop understanding capabilities can assist in reducing maths anxiety in both students and teachers.

Inspiring students to be exuberantly responsive is one of the most significant aspects of mathematics directions and a serious aspect of any curriculum. Successful teachers focus attentively on the less interested or weak students and the intelligent ones. Here are a few ways—based on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation—that can come into action to inspire primary and secondary school students in maths preparation.

Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation

Extrinsic motivation includes advantages that occur outside the student’s dominance. These may incorporate lucrative token rewards for top performance, escape “punishment” for accomplishing good, compliments for good work, and so on.

Although, many students show intrinsic motivation in their preference to understand a session or logic (task-related), to surpass others (ego-related), or to influence others. The ultimate aim gets to the barrier between intrinsic and extrinsic.

Strategies for Increasing Student Motivation in Math

Call attention to a gap in students’ skills: Disclosing to students a difference in their understanding abilities maximizes their desire to learn more. For example, you may present a few usual exercises or tasks that imply familiar circumstances, followed by exercises that include unfamiliar situations on the same maths topic. The more fiercely you find the gap in understanding, the more fruitful the motivation.

Display continuous achievement: Closely connected to the preceding technique is having students cherish a logical order of concepts. This varies from the earlier process in that it relies on students’ aspirations to increase, not complete, their knowledge skills. One instance of a sequential achievement method is how quadrilaterals differ from one to another from the point of view of
their properties.

Give a challenge: When students are challenged rationally, they respond with enthusiasm and attentiveness. Proper care must be taken in opting for the challenge for students like International Maths Olympiad Challenge offers maths test opportunities to students who want to prepare for the maths Olympiad from around the world. The maths challenge must lead into the curriculum and be within reach of the student’s abilities and grades.

Point out the usefulness of a topic: Introduce a practical implementation of genuine interest to the class at the start of a topic. For instance, in high school geometry, a student could be asked to find the diameter of a plate where all the relevant detail they have is a plate section smaller than a semicircle. The activity selected should be organized and easiest to motivate the students.

Use entertaining mathematics: Recreational motivation includes games, quizzes, contests, or puzzles. In addition to being chosen for their specific motivational advantage, these activities must be appropriate and uncomplicated. Effective implementation of this process will let students complete the recreation. Moreover, the fun and excitement that these recreational references create should be handled carefully.

Conclusion

Mathematics teachers must acknowledge the fundamental motives already exist in their learners or students who prepare hard to compete in International Maths Challenge. The teacher can then use these methods of motivation to increase engagement and improve the success rate of the teaching process. Utilizing student motivations and abilities can lead to the development of artificial mathematical problems and situations.

As we are near the start of a new session, it’s essential for students to begin class with more confidence and conviction– especially in math subjects. Math is the subject that children lose the concept and logic on over vacation and often have the most stress about when going back to school. Here are some usual and innovative ways for parents to include math excitingly at home to reduce their child’s burden about math class, progress familiarity, and learn through fun.

Geometry is one of the most approachable subjects to exercise at home. Different shapes, measurements, and angles are all around us — there are a plethora of methods to use geometry as a learning opportunity. As a parent, you should try using these effective ways to enhance your kid’s math skills at home-

Play-dough Kit

One of the biggest challenges for math students is working with intellectual concepts, so play-dough is a perfect tool to develop a real knowledge of geometry in a perceptible, tangible, and innovative way

By connecting with the clay and changing it into 2D and 3D shapes, kids are actively learning new shapes, measurements, angles, and differentiation, which ultimately helps them score high in the International Maths Olympiad examination.

Origami

Origami is the art of paper folding. A general misconception about math is that it is not an interesting subject. Like play-dough, Origami aids kids to interact substantially with conceptual mathematical concepts and logic while also creating art out of the last product! The practice has been significantly researched as a highly productive teaching equipment for enhancing math learning, overall approach, and confidence towards the maths preparation for International Maths Olympiad. With only a few pieces of wrapping or other flashy paper, kids at home can access a primitive craft that practices a range of geometrical mastery.

Acting out Angles

Substantial movement is a perfect technique to include sensory learning in math subjects. Alike Origami, angles are also a very versatile concept for different ages and assertiveness levels. Try this reclining exercise with your children every morning to wake up the body and understand the concept of the angle at the same time:

Step 1: On a piece of paper, draw a circle and write all angle names around it, including acute, obtuse, straight, right-angle, zero, reflex, and complete.

Step 2: Spin a bottle in the middle of the circle.

Step 3: When it stops, ask your kids to stretch to the angle that the bottle is implying. If they get the same angle more than one time, ask kids to demonstrate it again in a distinct pose.

Geometry Game

An effortless way to display the fun of math learning and maths preparation is with a family game night. Many familiar games and activities can be modified to include geometry for all kid’s age groups:

Charades – Write the names of different shapes on folded pieces of paper, mix them into a bowl and have your kids choose one. Without uttering, they must try to explain their shape by either making shapes using their hands or conveying the word itself. The person who predicts the right shape is next to choose from the bowl.

Geometry Bingo – Depending on the hardness level, draw several 2D/3D shapes and angles on a 3×3 grid and replicate the same for each member. The parent then puts down the same angles and shapes on tags, places them in a container, and shuffles them upwards. Each time the parent pulls out a label, the members must express the angle or shape (without pronouncing the word). When the first player shouts bingo, the parent inspects to see if they correctly identified all the shapes on their card to win.

Final Thoughts

Adding fun and creative practices at home helps to upskill your kids’ ability to perform in maths Olympiads and allows them to experiment with different techniques of learning and develop confidence in their skills. It also shows that learning math subject can be amusing and achieved by any child! Learn more about the maths concept and prepare your kids for the maths Olympiad test only with International Maths Olympiad Challenge.

You can also check the upcoming Maths Olympiad schedule on our website. We are striving hard to provide practical solutions to learn mathematics for students around the world.

Primary school is where it begins. This is when kids normally get introduced to math learning and when math uneasiness takes root repeatedly. Some children find math challenging yet exciting, while some find it extremely strenuous. They might feel distressed about not getting the answers correctly, or not keeping up with their levels of what the trainer or teacher is explaining.  

When kids don’t improve math learning skills at an early age, they tend to grow stress levels while doing math questions. This anxiety develops as they proceed through school and, due to the progressive structure of math, they go down further and further at the back. This generally results in hating the subject. Lack of skills and confidence in maths subjects can lead to self-hesitancy and not only below-par performance in math, but in other subjects as well.

Children who are anxious about math are expected to avoid it, which embellish a further barrier to studying math. Instead of being anxious, students should look for IMO sample papers and practice hard to participate in the International Maths Challenge and gain confidence.

Parents can play a key role in guiding to lessen their kids’ stress levels about math and develop their confidence and belief. It begins with encouraging children to learn and practice math and providing support at home. Moreover, by making Math playful and exciting at home, parents can remove negative discussions about math assignments and assure their kids to adopt a positive approach towards solving it, helping them recover their excitement and interest to learn more and grow their skills.

Some effective ways parents can reduce their kid’s math anxiety–

Make math interesting at home by arranging math games and quizzes and engaging your child in math-related works around the house. 

Be up to date on your connection and viewpoint toward math. Did you know that math anxiety can be infectious? The study has shown that parents can transfer their burden and stress about math to their kids, which can lead to bad performance and marks for your kid at school. Remember that you’re not manifesting negative feelings in front of your kid. Try to develop a positive, cool attitude in front of your child. 

Reach out to your kid’s school and meet teachers to discuss how you can help your child’s math learning skills at home. There are many assets out there, including IMO sample papers by International Maths Challenge for kids to help them practice the maths concepts they’re learning at school. Ask the teacher to suggest an excellent productive resource where your kid is at in their learning. A resource that is too tough to understand can create anxiety and more hesitation!

Enhance your math skills before giving attention to your child. Use resources and IMO sample papers and practice doing math questions. Communicate with your child in a comforting, positive way about math and have daily discussions about their recent math challenges and small successes that can take them to greater heights. Help them realize that mistakes are not the end; learning opportunities are limitless.

IMC (International Maths Challenge) offers a curriculum-specific student assessment & practice resource that is created by International Maths Olympiad experts on how your children learn best and efficiently. Don’t get distracted by any usual black-and-white practice books. For more information about the maths practice, visit our website.

Researchers at The University of Western Australia’s ARC Industrial Transformation Research Hub for Transforming Energy Infrastructure through Digital Engineering (TIDE) have made a significant mathematical breakthrough that could help transform ocean research and technology.

Research Fellow Dr. Lachlan Astfalck, from UWA’s School of Physics, Mathematics and Computing, and his team developed a new method for spectral density estimation, addressing long-standing biases and paving the way for more accurate oceanographic studies.

The study was published in the journal Biometrika, known for its emphasis on original methodological and theoretical contributions of direct or potential value in applications.

“Understanding the ocean is crucial for numerous fields, including offshore engineering, climate assessment and modeling, renewable technologies, defense and transport,” Dr. Astfalck said.

“Our new method allows researchers and industry professionals to advance ocean technologies with greater confidence and accuracy.”

Spectral density estimation is a mathematical technique used to measure the energy contribution of oscillatory signals, such as waves and currents, by identifying which frequencies carry the most energy.

“Traditionally, Welch’s estimator has been the go-to method for this analysis due to its ease of use and widespread citation, however this method has an inherent risk of bias, which can distort the expected estimates based on the model’s assumption, a problem often overlooked,” Dr. Astfalck said.

The TIDE team developed the debiased Welch estimator, which uses non-parametric statistical learning to remove these biases.

“Our method improves the accuracy and reliability of spectral calculations without requiring specific assumptions about the data’s shape or distribution, which is particularly useful when dealing with complex data that doesn’t follow known analytical patterns, such as internal tides in oceanic shelf regions,” Dr. Astfalck said.

The new method was recently applied in a TIDE research project by Senior Lecturer at UWA’s Oceans Graduate School and TIDE collaborator, Dr. Matt Rayson, to look at complex non-linear ocean processes.

“The ocean is difficult to measure and understand and the work we are doing is all about uncovering some of those mysteries,” Dr. Rayson said.

“The new method means we can better understand ocean processes, climate models, ocean currents and sediment transport, bringing us closer to developing the next generation of numerical ocean models.

For more insights like this, visit our website at www.international-maths-challenge.com.

Credit of the article given to University of Western Australia.