Share a story about how you overcame a learning challenge. Why was it a learning challenge? What strategies did you use?
Growing up I was very good at math. In my memory, I was in a split middle school and was able to participate in the older math topics presented in class. When I was in grade 8, I moved across the country where the curriculum changed and I suddenly felt ‘behind’. From this point forward in my learning, I told myself I was not good at math because of the one year I had of feeling confused and isolated from the rest of the learners. This negative repetition of poor math performance followed me into university where I avoided math at all cost. I believe when I graduated high school I said ‘I will never take another math course in my life’. NICE TRY! Sure enough I had to take math for a pre requisite last year. Right away I was filled with the same negativity towards my ability to ‘do math’. I struggled to understand concepts and gave up quickly so I got a tutor. Eventually with consistent effort and a large amount of breakdown and relearning positive affirmation towards math, I was able to work hard and over come the behavioural negative reinforcement from high school math.
In the article the author describes the importance of reinforcement following performance in behavioural learning. For me, this was seen as a negative response, increasing the likeliness of a similar performance. Once I changed the reinforcement response, I was able to relearn positive associations with math. The tutor I had during this time was able to use aspects of behavioural teaching when he looked at the cues given to reach a desired response (to increase confidence and focus on understanding) as well as allow for an environment which I could make progressive decisions to improve confidence. Verbally instructing a ‘back to the basics’ technique during tutoring allowed for a growth in confidence and allowed me to refocus my attention onto the problems rather than the belief of failure.
This type of learning was beneficial to my learning and help me pass a difficult course.
sc28 June 2, 2020
Hi Larissa!
I really connected to your story of excelling in math as a child, then feeling like math was too hard in high school.
I find it interesting how the negative reinforcement and negative association from the math classes did not come from the math lessons specifically, but from external sources that were comparisons to other learners and not fitting the prescribed curriculum of your new school (despite excelling in math in a different context) that heavily impacted your learning. I think this demonstrates how much a healthy and supportive learning environment can affect a student’s learning no matter what the actual lesson is.
Do you think that high schools should make more of an effort to build supportive environments for learners who are struggling with certain subjects? What do you think an essential support might be?
I’m so glad to hear that you were able to relearn a positive association with math! Relearning is a hurdle that I personally find very hard to accomplish but essential to move forwards.
– SC
larissak June 25, 2020 — Post author
Hi Sophie. Thanks for the input. I really do think such a large aspect of learning is reinforcement. A parent who tells their child how good they are at soccer will most likely provide confidence to attend practice and continue to build on skills. Similarly with learning, if you or someone else offers words of affirmation in a subject you will practice to maintain excellence. A larger effort of support in class by both teachers and students towards each other would greatly benefit a learning environment. I remember having a ‘lower level’ math class with a teacher who encouraged us to explain concepts to each other if we understood well. This was a wonderful aspect of direct instruction, where working on weaknesses and helping those further behind improved overall understanding. Also allowing students to become the teachers instills confidence and drills concepts further into understanding. Creating more integrated classrooms with a blend between teacher-student relationships would do wonders in traditional methods of schooling.