Top 10 Reasons Why Mostly of The Students Hate Mathematics

As teachers, we all know that students love hating Maths.

Students wear the ‘I’m no good at Maths’ badge proudly.  It’s cooler to fail at Maths than to be a ‘nerd’ and excel.  Rather than a stigma, belonging to the ‘I don’t get it’ club has more social currency than mathematical success.  And even though so much of our lives utilize Maths and mathematical thinking skills, students still parrot the line “It’s not as though I’m ever going to use this in the real world.”

“Maths was my worst subject”

So what are the ‘X’ factors which give Maths such a negative image?

In order to understand how to teach Maths like you love it, we have to understand how students hate Maths when they learn it.

Top Ten Reasons Why Students Hate Maths.
1. Teacher Assumption – “The teacher taught us as if we knew stuff already.”

2. Obscure Vocabulary – “I could never remember all of the maths words.”
3. Curricular Isolation – “Who cares? We’re never gonna use this stuff in the real world anyway.”
4. Sum Anxiety – “I kept on getting it wrong so I just gave up.”
5. Incomplete Instruction – “The teacher didn’t explain it to me properly.”
6. Social Stigma and Isolation – “I couldn’t keep up with everyone else and I didn’t want to look dumb by asking a question.”
7. Drill Overkill – “We just do the same questions over and over again.”
8. Student Self-Expectation – “I’ve never been good at Maths.  I guess I just don’t have a Maths brain.”
9. Student-Teacher Relationship – “My Maths teacher made me hate Maths.”
10. Lack of Stimulation – “Maths is just boring.”

As teachers we know that students often look for someone else to blame – so the fact that students highlight the teacher as the perceived cause of failure in Maths comes as no surprise.  But because students so often see the teacher as the ‘cause’, the teacher has the unique position of also being able to be the ‘cure’.

By addressing each of these reasons, I’m not suggesting that your students will suddenly begin to love Maths – but I can guarantee that their perceptions about Maths will begin to change.  And as their appreciation of your Maths classes improves, you’ll begin to find yourself looking forward to seeing what the next class will uncover.