In my last post, I explained how using a Growth Mindset when improving your maths skills might be useful. In this one I explain 5 ways to incorporate it into your maths journey.

How to use the Growth Mindset

1. Be Aware – Awareness of how you feel about something can be very powerful in changing how you think and react to situations. Next time you feel angry or frustrated in trying to learn something take a moment to think about what you’re feeling and why.

2. Be Wrong – You can’t learn without getting things wrong. Giving yourself permission to fail is one of the most important things you can do for your learning journey. Fear of failure can block problem-solving and learning. You can always learn something from the mistakes you made. Either to be more careful (I was always terrible for rushing through and getting silly things wrong) or more importantly, that you haven’t understood something. The last one is a really great thing to know.

3. Ask Questions – If you don’t understand – ask. There’s no shame in asking for help. It doesn’t mean you’re stupid and it signals to whoever is helping you learn that you’ve not got it yet. They can then give you appropriate help and know that maybe they need to change how they’re approaching the subject in order to make sure everyone can learn what they need to. Plus you never know who else might have that same question and is just too shy to ask. That goes for websites too. I’m always glad to hear about what’s helping you and what isn’t. If you don’t understand something, I’ll do my best to improve that post at a later date or provide more resources. You can always comment below a post or email me at hello@everydaymaths.co.uk.

4. See yourself as a Maths Person – No one is born with a maths brain. You don’t get assigned ‘logical’ or ‘creative’ at birth and are then stuck with that for the rest of your life. Some tasks do seem to come more easily to some people than others. But this could be down to any number of things: the home environment, what they were encouraged to do as a child, teachers, fellow students, whether you have a condition like dyslexia or dyscalculia. Maths ability is like a muscle. If you exercise it in the right way, it will improve. If you never use it, it will get weaker. Not everyone will be a maths genius, but everyone can improve their maths ability if they want to.

5. Celebrate – Makes sure you give yourself credit for your own efforts. Try not to compare yourself to others but try and think about how you’ve improved your own skills and how that’s helping you everyday. Learning can be hard work, especially as an adult, so make sure you give yourself a pat on the back for all the effort you’re making.

I’d love to know if you have any more tips on how to bring the Growth Mindset into learning maths. Comments below or contact me