A math test about feelings — Alberta tries a different tack to find out how students learn

[Alberta researchers will be tracking students over time, getting them to take the survey about how they feel about math as they progress through school. TIME]

It’s not your usual math test — some students in Edmonton will be required to fill out a survey about their feelings about math, no calculations required.

“There’s a lot of math phobia in society,” noted Christine Dibben, the assistant principal at Dr. Donald Massey School.

Dibben told the Edmonton Journal she’s heard parents tell their children that “it’s OK not to like math. I wasn’t good at it either.”

Due to concerns whether Alberta students’ grasp of the fundamentals of math, Dibben has teamed up research consultant Lisa Farlow for a Math Attitudes Project in which 2,000 students from grades seven to 12 will be asked questions such as: Do you like math? Are you confident in your ability to do math? Do you know why you are learning math skills?

The survey will also help educators understand what the gender differences may be and whether a student’s background is a factor i.e. how do Indigenous students perceive math learning compared to those who don’t have a First Nations or Métis background.

Researchers will also be tracking students over time, getting them to take the survey as they progress through school.

“It’s fabulous that teachers are taking note of how students are being taught and engaging them in a collaborative manner,” Barbara Silva of Support Our Students told Yahoo Canada News. SOS is a non-profit group in Alberta focused on education advocacy for students.

“Once students experience success in math, we know that they will continue that success. The problem is we think of math as binary in nature: either you get it or you don’t.”

Silva should know. She was a chemical engineer who became a high school math teacher.

“We would never say, ‘Oh you can’t read, that’s OK — you just don’t get it.’ Numeracy is just as important as literacy,” emphasized Silva who has three children attending elementary school.

As a teacher, Silva said she would head into the classroom excited to teach — so the kids knew she wanted them to learn.

“We would celebrate that we were going to learn together — math was a puzzle we could work out,” she said. Silva said she would check each student’s homework every day, to show she cared.

“When they know that I cared enough to do that, they would return the favour by showing up and trying.”

‘Meet them where they’re at’

Silva says this survey is much in the same vein — demonstrating to students that teachers are concerned and want to work with them.

“We have to find out how we can help them and meet them where they are at.”

Math has become a bit of a lightning rod in Alberta. At the start of the month, Education Minister David Eggen announced changes to the Grade 6 provincial achievement test with the addition of a 15-question written section with no calculators allowed.

The K-9 math curriculum has also had an overhaul with an emphasis on basic numeracy skills i.e. the times tables.

The alterations have been met with some grumblings from teachers who feel that students doing timed exams find it difficult, due to stress, to access their knowledge and skills.

Eggen has said he’s open to suggestions from teachers.

Math is also a big concern across the country. In Ontario, half of the Grade 6 students did not meet the provincial math standard this year, continuing the steady decline in test scores over the past seven years. In 2016, only 50 per cent of Grade 6 students met the math standard, compared to 58 per cent in 2012.

It’s endemic of a national problem that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has noted. Math scores for 15 year olds in Canada have “significantly declined” between 2003 and 2012.

Ontario’s Education Minister Mitzie Hunter has pledged changes to improve math scores including designating three “math lead teachers” in all elementary schools.

“All kids can learn math,” Support Our Students’ Silva said. “It’s in discovering how they learn and what works for them.”