What are the reasons why children are not good at math and don't understand learning? It may be that some people have been thinking about it all their lives. In the view of Mr. Zhou Jianhua, vice president of the High School Attached to the National People's Congress and a special math teacher, it is not right to rely solely on IQ. You must also master this skill-"rational quotient".
The proponent of "rational quotient" is Keith, the former research chairman of applied cognitive science in Canada. Yanu, he said that high IQ does not represent rational decision-making, and rationality is the key element of human beings' road to happiness and self-realization.
Many parents believe that children with high IQ will make great achievements. But contrary to expectations, more often, smart people will do "stupid things." If people are compared to cars, IQ is like the speed of cars, and rationality determines the direction of driving. Which is more important, speed or direction?
Speeding in the wrong direction will eventually drift away from the destination and even lead to traffic accidents. Because intelligence tests do not measure rationality, the so-called "intelligence" is only high intelligence, not high rationality. Just like the processing speed of computers, human beings also have two information processing mechanisms: fast and slow. Fast thinking is autonomous thinking, while slow thinking is algorithmic thinking and reflective thinking, in which algorithmic thinking is traditional intelligence and reflective thinking is rational thinking.
Our brains are extremely stingy when using cognitive resources, like to take shortcuts, and don't pay attention to the universal importance of rational thinking at all. This cognitive meanness is what we often say, "Don't use your head." This mindless behavior affects all aspects of our lives, including our study life, especially the study of mathematics.
But fortunately, rationality can be improved through acquired learning. There are two ways:
The first method is: use your head.
The second way is to obtain good rules, knowledge, procedures and strategies to assist decision-making and problem solving.
In fact, many children are not good at math and don't understand it. They often have such a question in their hearts: what is mathematics? What's the use for us ordinary people? It seems that the use of mathematics outside junior high school is very little for us except for further studies.
When it comes to mathematics, mathematicians are the first two, and even creatively break down the English abbreviation of mathematics into mental abuse of human beings!
1. Is it really useless to learn math?
Simply put, can I go out to buy things and settle accounts without studying math? Further, when friends talk about quantum mechanics? Superconducting technology and so on? Do you know what these are if you don't study math?
In fact, mathematics is not just a subject, it contains much more things than the senior high school entrance examination. For example, we can train our logical thinking, directional thinking, reverse thinking, divergent thinking, innovative thinking and so on. But you enjoy the achievement of mathematics, but you insist on denying its contribution.
In fact, your reason knows that mathematics is useful and says it is useless just because you can't make excuses for your study. In fact, learning is not difficult. It is important that we learn to think rationally.
Second, how to learn mathematics?
Teacher Zhou Jianhua said: In our study, we should pay attention to the understanding and application of laws. Only those who can really learn can master the core laws and ideas of the subject. Once we master these, we students can really go to the free kingdom of this subject.
To learn mathematics well, we should pay attention to the following points:
1. Stimulate the interest in mathematics learning
Einstein: For everything, only love is the best teacher, far exceeding the sense of responsibility.
We always seem to have a general view that mathematics education in primary and secondary schools in the United States is not as good as ours. But why do we think that the level of basic mathematics education in China is much higher than that in other countries on the one hand, and question the role of mathematics education on the other?
The answer is simple. If the purpose of our mathematics education is examination, and the process of mathematics learning is only to solve problems, such mathematics is of course boring.
So how can we stimulate children's interest in mathematics learning? We can think about mathematics learning from the perspective of culture and human growth.
Nowadays, mathematics has separated the connection between knowledge, thought and culture, with only isolated knowledge points and examination questions, and no vivid process and experience.
However, we must know that any mathematical concepts are not created out of thin air, and there are stories behind them. The development of mathematics is driven by both internal needs and external forces, which are valuable resources.
Teachers and parents can guide children to relive and simulate the occurrence and development of these problems, so that children can experience the joy of exploration and discovery while accumulating knowledge, and find their own learning methods from their predecessors, which is very helpful for children's innovation in learning.
2. Improve mathematical ability with rational thinking
Mr. Zeng Rong, a middle school affiliated to Fudan University, summed up three things about mathematics learning: what, why and what else?
Many children do well in math in junior high school, but their math scores plummet in senior high school. Why?
The reason is that the content of high school mathematics is more abstract and the concentration of knowledge is greatly improved. Many children have not adjusted their learning methods in time with the improvement of their ability requirements, and they are still cognitive misers. They use the learning mode of using less brains in junior high school to study senior high school mathematics, and their grades will definitely not be good.
At the same time, we often focus too much on learning specific knowledge and neglect to reveal the truth behind it. Teacher Zhou is asking the students about the concept of combination. The first question, why do you want to learn combination? The students quickly answered, what is the definition of combination and so on. But when you ask the second question, why is this one written in the book instead of another? At this time, the students were speechless.
In some mathematics teaching, there is often no thinking process, only conclusions, from conditions to conclusions, and there is a lack of reasoning. It is not enough to pursue the speed of solving problems, but more attention should be paid to improving the quality of thinking.
In mathematics learning, children should be the main body of learning and should take the initiative to participate in learning. Have a spirit of questioning and a vision of discovery. As we mentioned at the beginning, in learning, we should pay attention to the understanding and application of laws. Only those who can really learn can master the core laws and ideas of the discipline. Once we master these, we students can really move towards the free kingdom of this subject.
Carelessness is a bad excuse.
When we get a child's test paper for analysis, we often hear the child say, "Oh, I was careless." "How can this question be wrong? If you have done it before, choose it. " At this time, parents often comfort their children. Don't be careless in the future and look at the topic clearly ... It seems that this problem has to be solved.
But carelessness is no excuse for wrong questions. In the final analysis, it is still a question of ability. Carelessness covers up too many substantive problems, such as: misoperation is actually a problem of computing power; There is deviation in understanding, which is a defect in understanding ability; Not too thoughtful, but the logic is not strict. We can't let carelessness take the blame for children's abilities.
We should pay attention to the ability training in mathematics learning, and the core is to develop good study habits and have concentration. In mathematics learning, we should ask ourselves to have a serious attitude and a dedicated spirit in everything we do. This kind of high attention and all-out effort is a very important habit, which is the basis of improving ability and can form a virtuous circle of study, work and life.
Third, why do you want to learn mathematics?
"Math is useless" and "the topic is difficult" are many children's impressions of mathematics, and what's more, they called for "Mathematics to walk out of the college entrance examination" on the Internet. Since math is useless, why does everyone have to learn it from an early age? Why can it occupy a place in the three major disciplines?
We can think about whether mathematics is useful or not from another angle.
In China, few people ask, what's the use of learning Chinese? What's the use of reading Tang poetry? This is because people all agree that Tang poetry is the traditional culture of China, which contains important educational value and cultural heritage, which is called "useless use".
In fact, mathematics is also a kind of culture, it is a kind of world culture, and its education also includes aspects of educating people and inheriting culture.
Mathematics also represents reason. The basic laws of nature can be described by mathematics, so the process of learning mathematics is the process of learning how to understand our world. Learning mathematics not only cultivates people's logical ability, but also cultivates scientific attitude and rational spirit.
Use rational thinking to guide mathematics learning and use mathematics learning to promote rational thinking. Improving rationality is not only of great significance to individuals, but also to human society. As long as we change the social environment slightly, we can prevent people's rational thinking from going wrong. We control our environment to a certain extent, so we should decide to rebuild the social environment and make people in the environment more rational.