Stereotyping, which is just a weird social learning function based on discrimination, tends to happen at all levels of education. Dunning-Krueger, either high functioning people believing they have lower skills or the reverse with lower skilled thinking they perform better, is one aspect. Illusory Superiority, where a person thinks their skill level is higher than others, being the counterpoint.
Generalizing someone's skill set based on these biases creates a sorting effect that, without intervention, prejudices groups but with no real grounding in fact or ability. (sound like a reasonable topic for a post?)
My mother's Under-Grad is in Applied Mathematics and she taught me all the shortcuts to Algebra years before I took the classes in middle school. It led to me getting lower marks because I didn't "show all my work". The answers were correct, I just did some of it in my head. Caused serious issues with me being bored and pushback from a teacher who insisted I wasn't "learning". Their inability to understand a simple difference in learning caused friction that was resolved the next year by a teacher who took the time to ask "why I did it this way".
That lesson stuck with me when I started teaching. Simply asking a student their approach gave them the ability to show me their thought process and for me to adjust my expectations.
Insightful! Despite taking Linear Algebra and Differential Equations in college, sometimes I still find myself wondering if I *truly* am good at math. Good to know that I should trust my classes & be confident! Maybe I’ll start flaunting it…
I finally got over my math anxiety when i passed Linear Algebra and liked it. I also can see the financial connection. If you believe you're a bad saver then you will be.
Stereotyping, which is just a weird social learning function based on discrimination, tends to happen at all levels of education. Dunning-Krueger, either high functioning people believing they have lower skills or the reverse with lower skilled thinking they perform better, is one aspect. Illusory Superiority, where a person thinks their skill level is higher than others, being the counterpoint.
Generalizing someone's skill set based on these biases creates a sorting effect that, without intervention, prejudices groups but with no real grounding in fact or ability. (sound like a reasonable topic for a post?)
My mother's Under-Grad is in Applied Mathematics and she taught me all the shortcuts to Algebra years before I took the classes in middle school. It led to me getting lower marks because I didn't "show all my work". The answers were correct, I just did some of it in my head. Caused serious issues with me being bored and pushback from a teacher who insisted I wasn't "learning". Their inability to understand a simple difference in learning caused friction that was resolved the next year by a teacher who took the time to ask "why I did it this way".
That lesson stuck with me when I started teaching. Simply asking a student their approach gave them the ability to show me their thought process and for me to adjust my expectations.
Insightful! Despite taking Linear Algebra and Differential Equations in college, sometimes I still find myself wondering if I *truly* am good at math. Good to know that I should trust my classes & be confident! Maybe I’ll start flaunting it…
You are good at math and will continue to get better. Keep at it!
As an ex-biologist, I claim Biology is the best background for economics. Math is too exact. Economics and Biology are messy and uncertain.
My favorite paper and I always talk about in my classes too!
I finally got over my math anxiety when i passed Linear Algebra and liked it. I also can see the financial connection. If you believe you're a bad saver then you will be.
Mindset is key.