Why Do People Struggle With Math?

The gap between people who perform mathematical operations without any difficulties and those who have the hardest time understanding essential math concepts is growing at a disturbing pace in the United States. This piece mentions several reasons why some individuals struggle with math. Nurses Announcements Archive Article

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Why Do People Struggle With Math?

Year after year, responses to the annual Gallup Youth Survey reveal that teenagers list math as the subject in which they encounter the most difficulty. The difficulties tend to follow these teenagers well into adulthood, as evidenced by the sheer number of developmental and remedial math class offerings at colleges and universities across the US. According to Lopukhova (2012), mathematics was the most common remedial course reported by beginning post-secondary students: 15% of students in all types of educational institutions were enrolled in remedial mathematics in 2004.

And statistics are dismally worse at junior colleges, partly as a result of open admissions policies that allow anyone to enroll without regard to ability to successfully handle collegiate level coursework. Nationwide, almost 70 percent of all incoming community college students must enroll in non-credit remedial math courses before taking college level math classes. Remedial math often leads to deferred dreams because the vast majority of students who enroll in these courses never end up inside a college-level math class. We all know that most degree plans require satisfactory completion of at least one college-level math course such as College Algebra, Finite Mathematics or Elementary Statistics prior to graduation. Without a college-level math course on one's transcript to meet general education requirements, no degree will be conferred.

Why do many students struggle with math? The theories are abundant. I will mention a few of them.

Math is a sequential subject.

Math is a highly objective subject, which means each problem has one correct solution and an infinite number of wrong answers. It is also a sequential subject, so what you learn today builds upon the math you learned in the past. Also, the math you are learning today is the foundation of all future mathematical learning. If the basic concrete foundation (read: arithmetic) has cracks, you will almost certainly struggle with future mathematical learning that involves more complexities and abstractions (read: algebra and beyond). Unfortunately, many students move into more abstract math courses with a dangerously crumbled foundation in the essentials. All too often, this spells disaster.

Neurobiological issues may hinder the acquisition of mathematical concepts.

Students think, learn and process information in different ways. The left hemisphere of the brain is regarded as the analytical side, whereas the right brain is commonly known as the global half. Left-dominant learners tend to be analytic thinkers who demonstrate a preference toward acquiring new information in a sequential, logical, step by step manner. On the other hand, right-dominant learners tend to be less analytic, more artistic, more holistic and with a preference to acquire new information starting with very general ideas before breaking them down into specifics. Thus, left-dominant learners usually grasp mathematics and logic with ease.

People fail to connect math with real life.

Many students look at a linear equation with a bunch of letters, numbers, and funky-looking symbols while wondering, "What is the point? Why do I need to know this?"

Associating math lessons to real life is important, especially for adult learners. Making a connection to everyday life has been proven to increase peoples' interest level in math and prompt them to actually want to learn it. Knowing how all those symbols translate to real life is crucial to how satisfactorily a person will retain an abstract topic.

Advanced mathematical operations require abstract thinking.

To satisfactorily learn advanced math, a person needs the ability to think in abstractions. Abstract thinking employs concepts and ideas that contain symbolic interpretations. However, many people have not crossed the bridge from concrete thought to abstract thought. According to Wadsworth (1989), one-half of the adults in the United States do not develop beyond concrete operations. Concrete operations address an individual's capacity to think about things that are real and concrete rather than logical and abstract. A student who struggles with abstract thinking may also struggle with higher level mathematics.

Math requires practice and patience.

To succeed in math, students must exert plenty of time, effort, practice and mental energy. After all, practice makes perfect. However, we live in a society in which immediate gratification is prized, so some people demand the answer now instead of patiently working toward the solution. Patience is a virtue that is gradually becoming lost on people.

Dyscalculia might be a legitimate problem.

Some individuals who have difficulty grasping math might suffer from dyscalculia, a neurocognitive affliction that impedes the ability to learn essential numeric and arithmetic concepts. Dyscalculia is supposed to be the numerical equivalent of dyslexia.

RESOURCES

Lopukhova, O. (2012). The influence of developmental mathematics classes on the successful completion of the higher level mathematics courses. Retrieved March 17, 2014, from http://www2.uwstout.edu/content/lib/thesis/2012/2012lopukhoval.pdf

Barry J. Wadsworth, Piaget's Theory on Cognitive and Affective Development, 4th ED. (New York: Longmans, 1989), 115.

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TheCommuter

About TheCommuter, BSN, RN

TheCommuter, BSN, RN, CRRN is a longtime physical rehabilitation nurse who has varied experiences upon which to draw for her articles. She was an LPN/LVN for more than four years prior to becoming a Registered Nurse.

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Specializes in Eventually Midwifery.
Remedial math often leads to deferred dreams because most students who are required to enroll in these courses never find their way into a college-level math class.

I really enjoyed your article, as I am one that has struggled with math. However, I really wanted to bash this statement since you did not post any sort of references to support this claim. So as a good scholar, I began researching, and I did find that many students in community colleges that were forced into remedial math, in fact, did not go on to graduate from college. Then I began to think of my own experiences with college math.

Due to a low ACT score, I was forced to take a pre-algebra course that did not count toward graduation (ie, remedial math). I guess this was supposed to bridge the gap between high school and college, but honestly, the classes that I took afterward (contemporary math and statistics) were not even closely related. I found the remedial course disheartening and rather boring, but I did pass it. The subsequent courses that I took I found challenging, but I got A's in both of them because I had a dynamic teacher that was passionate and really, really effective.

For those of us that are not good at math, it takes an exceptional teacher to help us decode problems. Perhaps the problem is not because we are not 'college prepared' (I went on to graduate with honors in both undergrad and graduate schools), but rather the delivery system of the materials.

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
I really wanted to bash this statement since you did not post any sort of references to support this claim. So as a good scholar, I began researching, and I did find that many students in community colleges that were forced into remedial math, in fact, did not go on to graduate from college.

Casserly talks about 3-year degrees. Carnegie's work in remedial math cited as one approach. | Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

Only 31 percent of students placed into remedial math ever move beyond it, according to the Community College Research Center at Columbia University's Teachers College, meaning the students never even get to college-level work, much less graduate. The prospects are especially bleak for students who test into the lowest level of a remedial-math course sequence, where they're asked to add, subtract, multiply, and divide whole numbers, fractions, mixed numbers, and decimals. Remedial math is the biggest obstacle to graduation at a time when President Obama wants community colleges to produce five million more graduates by 2020.
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Specializes in Eventually Midwifery.

Exactly, when I searched, I found quite a few articles that definitely support your statement.

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Specializes in ICU.

Much of it is because many of the people have been out of school for so long. I know I am taking remedial algebra right now. Took algebra I last semester and am taking algebra II this semester. I am so glad that I have done this. I take college algebra over the summer and would have never passed it without these two refresher classes. I don't necessarily struggle with math, I just didn't remember what I did 20 years ago. Probably about a third of my class has dropped my math class this semester and the same amount dropped last semester. I think those are the people that didn't realize what getting their college education was about. They just woke up one day and said, I think I will go to college, and didn't think of the amount of work that goes into it. Math is a lot of work. We have tests, take home quizzes, math lab, class time, it really seems neverending. It really depends on how much you want it. How much you really want a career as opposed to making min. wage at a fast food job or working in retail for the rest of your life.

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I don't care what anyone says, math is the devil. :cheeky:

Just jokes. I've always been horrible in math but with practice, it's gotten better. :)

Thanks for the article.

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I think you hit the nail on the head by noting that math is completely and totally objective (Unless you are Sheldon Cooper and working in theoretical physics...).

You can BS through many, many subjects, but math has one correct answer, and there is no extra credit for pretty penmanship or sucking up to the instructor. Over years of teaching medication math to LPN students, I also noticed that neatness and precision is rare in younger students....lack of clarity of a decimal place, not using units of measurement, and a failure to work the solution backwards to see if it MAKES SENSE can kill a potential career in nursing (and many, many other well compensated jobs).

For example, if you want to give 200 mgs of a med, and concentration is 50 mg in 5 ml, does 2000 ml REALLY sound like a med dose to you???

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I agree that math is a sequential subject. You can't learn 5 if you didn't learn 2 or 1. But math can be really very easy if you practice solving it. It is just like a routine.

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Great article. The US is woefully behind in math in particular. I think unfortunately it's generations of math-phobics teaching others to be math-phobic and it starts with math-phobic elementary school teachers and parents.

I've seen some teaching methods employed at other countries that make so much more sense than how we do things here! They have a lot more little tricks at their disposal to make things easier to grasp.

That said, I am definitely right-brained and math-phobic. But I think I would be better if my school had put more emphasis on math and if my parents didn't emphasize the fact that my whole family is bad at it quite so much.

I was almost place in remedial math and I decided to go ahead and take 111, college algebra. I ended up getting a C in that, but moved onto college trig which I got an A in, so I really should have taken that first all along. Many people are better at one or the other, regardless of its sequential nature. Visual people like myself tend to do better at trig.

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Specializes in orthopedic/trauma, Informatics, diabetes.

As a former teacher, math and science, it is imperative that people master the basics before going on. math facts in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th grades are a must. I HATE rote memorization, but in math you have to know your basic addition/subtraction/mult/div facts in order to add in the algorithms for advanced operations. My children are in elementary and middle school now and Common Core (not to start a political debate AT ALL) is wrecking it. It is so convoluted, kids cannot grasp it. I have one child who is like me: very linear and concrete. Math comes extremely easy to both of us (him more than me). The other one doesn't like it, but he does have good basics, so he can be successful. I hate that people hate math. I love it. It needs to be taught correctly, early. Not too many teachers are good at teaching math, therefore, students don't understand it-become afraid of it and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. :(

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
Much of it is because many of the people have been out of school for so long.
I'm the author checking back in. I placed into remedial arithmetic right out of high school. My placement scores were so pitifully low that I did not even place into remedial algebra. Over the years of being in remedial classes, half of my classmates have been 'younger' people fresh out of high school and half have been 'older' students who have been out of school a long time.

To make things worse, I took 4 years of college-prep math during my high school years (algebra, geometry, trigonometry, precalculus), yet I graduated from high school not knowing how to balance a simple equation due to social promotion and simply being passed year after year.

For example, if you want to give 200 mgs of a med, and concentration is 50 mg in 5 ml, does 2000 ml REALLY sound like a med dose to you???
This arises from an inability to perform simple estimation, which is something kids should have learned to do in 4th grade or so. In addition, estimation is a skill that should stick with people throughout adult life because it is something we need to do daily. It is a common sense skill.
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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
I am definitely right-brained and math-phobic. But I think I would be better if my school had put more emphasis on math and if my parents didn't emphasize the fact that my whole family is bad at it quite so much.
Same here. I'm right-dominant and prefer to get the big picture before moving to specifics. Although I am still stuck in remedial math hell after 14 years of trying to escape it, I am determined to pass a college level math course this year. My inability to pass a college level math class is the reason why I do not have a BSN degree.

I was almost place in remedial math and I decided to go ahead and take 111, college algebra. I ended up getting a C in that, but moved onto college trig which I got an A in, so I really should have taken that first all along. Many people are better at one or the other, regardless of its sequential nature. Visual people like myself tend to do better at trig.
Yep. My best friend repeatedly failed College Algebra, but was able to earn 'B' grades in Finite Mathematics and Statistics. Some people truly understand one type of math better than others, it seems.

As a former teacher, math and science, it is imperative that people master the basics before going on. math facts in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th grades are a must. I HATE rote memorization, but in math you have to know your basic addition/subtraction/mult/div facts in order to add in the algorithms for advanced operations.
This is so true! I still struggle with some of the essentials (fractions, decimals, percentages, integers, absolute value, order of operations, etc.), so the higher level material will remain mystifying until I master these basics.
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