Talented in Maths? – How to Keep Students Motivated

One of the strongest memories I have from my school days (which were ages ago….) is how as an 8-year old little girl, I completed my maths exercise book for that school term in one evening. Maths was easy for me, but the outcome of my speed was that the teacher became mad at me!

After that no attention was paid to the fact that I really liked maths.

Maths is often approached as a subject that is hard and boring to learn. This mindset seems to be much more tolerated with maths than many other school subjects. “Students might even take pride in being weak in maths, and this attitude is sometimes transferred from parents to their children. This can be very problematic.” says Einari Kurvinen, Head of Pedagogy at Eduten and a PhD researcher at University of Turku.

Maths can be difficult, it is true.

“Mathematics is based on a whole different kind of thinking than what we instinctively use. Maths has its own set of rules,” Kurvinen explains. “I once had a professor who crystallized this beautifully in saying that maths is the only subject in which the logic comes from the subject itself and not from the teacher.”

With this preconceived mental burden, maths is often treated as a challenge – in a negative way. But sometimes, when a child finds maths easy, the actual challenge becomes how to keep up their motivation.

Speed in computation is not the same thing as talent

There are different ways a child can demonstrate talent in maths. In the 70’s a Russian psychologist Vadim Krutetskii found three different types of mathematics talents in children: Some children reasoned abstractly by nature, some had strong spatial skills and some had a combination of both.

According to this, speed in computation and the ability to memorize formulas  are not seen as necessary conditions for talent, even though it is exactly those talents that often count in standardized math tests.

Kurvinen thinks one aspect in maths teaching that stands out as a problem, especially with talented children, is that maths is often taught in categories, as separate collections of “tricks”, but the whole picture gets lost. It is how those tricks are connected and what they create together that is important and often completely missed.

“At Eduten we try to mix different elements and categories of maths in the exercises so that the connections between those elements would start to unfold to students,” Kurvinen says.

Maths is usually taught from books and categories are followed religiously, every student completing more or less the same exercises at the same time. With EdTech solutions differentiation is easier.

“I know students that are really engaged and enjoy  doing maths with Eduten who performed one year above their school year level for example,” Kurvinen says.

One way to keep up the motivation of talented students is to view maths as a hobby.

“If a student is talented and interested in music, they attend after-school music classes. It is quite clear that music as a school subject cannot give them enough possibilities for development. But what happens with maths?” Kurvinen points out.

After-school math clubs can be a great help here.

“In these clubs children can explore maths further, have connections with other children who like maths and be guided by expert maths teachers,” Kurvinen says.

Writer: Kati Melto, Head of Marketing Communications, Education House Finland