Teachers are influencers.

Our words matter and relationships with students can make or break learning.

As math teachers, our students sometimes arrive with a negative math reality based on previous adverse experiences.

Why Should We Encourage Academic Courage in Math?

Academic courage is necessary across all academic domains, but especially mathematics where only one answer is correct. There may be multiple ways people arrive at their answer, but only one answer is correct.

Our challenge is to influence students’ perspectives on math to create a new reality, one that encourages growth-mindset and academic courage.

Creating the Right Learning Environment

To improve mathematical discourse, academic courage, and flexible thinking we want to create safe and inclusive learning environments that honor and appreciate growth. This requires an acknowledgement of the role of mistakes, which are merely feedback that allows us to correct our thinking to achieve our ultimate goals. We want to create an environment that encourages mistakes as necessary for intellectual growth.

Dr. Carol Dweck extensively researched growth mindset and shares recommendations for teachers in this powerful TedTalk,

The Power of Yet (10:34)