How to Cope With Math Phobia

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Steve Jones and I'm going to look at the problem of mathematics phobia. Actually, I don't believe in mathematics phobia because a phobia is an irrational fear. And I think mathematics phobia is an entirely rational fear and it is a fear of the unknown and undoable. The reason that these mathematics problems are unreal and undoable is simply that the approach to them is not correct. I think most of the answer lies not with student but with the teacher. So, a teacher has to look at the way he puts forward mathematical problems. He has to make them more practical, more real, in to the real world and then create something which is exciting. So, instead of saying, oh, look at that tree, or look at this window, it's a matter of saying, let's measure this window, let's measure this tree, let's this shadow, let's calculate using this information that we collect. So mathematics becomes less a tool than a process. Typically in physics, we will go outside and we will measure things, we will measure the width of things, the height of things, and then we'll draw a graft, when we use the mathematics to explain what we are doing in physics. So mathematics really is better taught by working on direct real things. For example, going outside and counting the cars going past, counting the number of green cars, counting the number of red cars; then working out a percentage of which cars went past with which color and so forth. So, in conclusion I think mathematics phobia needs to be dealt with and I think it needs to be dealt with by the teacher by making things much more real, much more practical, much more exciting."