Providing a Supportive Mathematics Classroom

Abstract

If all students are to come to the “belief in the value of diligence and in one’s own efficacy” (Ball, Mathematical proficiency for all students: Toward a strategic research and development program in mathematics education, p. 9, 2003), they need a classroom environment that helps them secure positive control over their actions and their emotions. Otherwise, there is little, if any, reason to think the mathematics classroom would be a satisfying place for them to be. Students who often have a hard time could well blame their mathematics teacher or the textbook as the source of the problem, or they may justify their not knowing by claiming/believing they are “one of those who can’t get math.” Leaving those students to always return to that disturbing emotional state and self-defeating belief when faced with the next mathematics problem would seem to ensure they will continue to have a poor mathematics experience and naturally think poorly of whatever and whoever was directly involved, perhaps including themselves. How we can help them negotiate the tension in a constructive manner is essential, for the confusion is indeed a veritable storm for some students in mathematics, making their gaining any sure footing impossible. This chapter explores a number of ways of making students’ mathematics experience more emotionally and intellectually productive.