THE LIMITS OF “NATURAL” TALENT: YOU DON’T NEED TO BE A GENIUS TO BECOME MATHEMATICIAN.

Sylvia Serfaty is a prominent French mathematician working on quantum vortexes and Ginzburg-Landau theory. She won the EMS Prize in 2004 and Henri Poincare Prize in 2014. In this video she “explains why you don’t have to be a genius to become a mathematician.”

The Wired Magazine has a more extensive interview with Dr. Serfaty.

Terence Tao, a recipient of Fields Medal and Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics, offers similar insights in his essay “Does one have to be a genius to do maths?” Dr. Tao writes:

Does one have to be a genius to do mathematics? The answer is an emphatic NO.  In order to make good and useful contributions to mathematics, one does need to work hard, learn one’s field well, learn other fields and tools, ask questions, talk to other mathematicians, and think about the “big picture.” And yes, a reasonable amount of intelligence, patience, and maturity is also required. But one does not need some sort of magic “genius gene” that spontaneously generates ex nihilo deep insights, unexpected solutions to problems, or other supernatural abilities.

GROWTH MINDSET IN MATHEMATICS (II) - Developmental Mathematics

Drs. Benken and Li, along with Jorge Ramirez and Scott Wetendorf, conducted a study concerning students taking developmental mathematics courses in a large public comprehensive university setting. Their findings suggest a need for

“re-evaluation of developmental mathematics courses to include student outcomes that focus on attitudes about mathematics in addition to content and skills.”

They note that

"math anxiety taxes and competes with resources that are normally used for working memory,"

thus impeding development of a positive mathematical identity.

Carnegie Foundation estimates that 60 percent of the nation’s 13 million community college students are unprepared for college-level courses and must enroll in at least one developmental course (see the article Pathways to Improvement). Currently 27% of incoming California State University students arrive unprepared for college-level mathematics, as noted in the recent CSU Academic Senate Quantitative Reasoning Task Force Report. These staggering numbers illustrate a broader problem of effectiveness of mathematics education in the United States (see the Slate Article, What's Wrong with Math Education in the US). According to the most recent results of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), the U.S. 15-year old students place 35^th out of 64 tested countries in mathematics proficiency.

The Carnegie Foundation programs utilize the growth mindset principles specifically to developmental mathematics in a framework called Productive Persistence. There are several excellent resources on their website, for example:

• Pathways to Improvement: Using Psychological Strategies to Help College Students Master Developmental Math by Elene Silva and Taylor White,and
• Creating a Classroom Culture for Student Success by Gay Clyburn,

You can also watch an excellent lecture on productive persistence by Dr. Rachel Beattie

 

Finally, please explore an excellent website With Math I Can. Watch this emotional video describing importance of students’ mindset in mathematics

 

and sign this pledge to help every student succeed in math.

GROWTH MINDSET IN MATHEMATICS (I)

Growth mindset has a special place in mathematics education.  Fostering growth mindset reduces stereotype threat and can help narrow both racial and gender achievement gaps.  For example, recent PLOS ONE article suggests that gender-dependent decisions to drop out of STEM (following a calculus I class) might be dictated by beliefs rather than abilities.  See also this introduction to stereotype threat on dePaul University's Learning in Progress.

In the November issue of Scientific American, Dr. Jo Boaler, Professor of Mathematics Education at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, argues that

An emphasis on memorization, rote procedures, and speed impairs learning and achievement in mathematics.  

Dr. Boaler is a cofounder of Youcubed, a company providing large array of growth mindset resources for K-12 teachers - some of them certainly applicable to college-level mathematics.

• Youcubed provides an excellent cycle of mindset-boosting videos in the context of mathematics classroom (we have used some of these videos in our early-alert campaign in calculus).  
• The Teaching Channel provides short descriptions of Youcubed resources including on-line courses. 
• Follow these links to additional resources from Edutopia and Growth Mindset Maths.

The video below is an excerpt of an interview with Carol Dweck and Greg Walton in which they discuss some strategies for and effects of encouraging a growth mindset in learners.

Drs. Carol Dweck and Greg Walton talk about Growth Mindset from Character Lab on Vimeo.