Visually Cued

Let’s talk about math… It has become evident to me that mathematics is visually cued.  If you don’t recognize it, you can’t do it.  If the “x” is situated on the “wrong side” of the equation, if the graph is scaled by 2’s or 10’s, or if the triangle looks like it has a 45 degree angle instead of 60 can unintentionally throw off the learner from taking the next step.  As a result, the learner gets STUCK and math confidence plummets.  To restore the learner’s sense of efficacy would require the learner to ask a question and get help.  If left stuck for too long, the learner would soon adopt false beliefs of “math is hard”… “I’m not good at math”… and “math sucks.”  These are all horrible outcomes.  My job is to create a safe learning environment, listen to the learner’s struggle, and find doable strategies to remedy the perceived math obstacle.  No one learns exactly the same, hence how to resolve the learner’s issue is never the same.  Just because some learners are visually cued in one way, it may not trigger others to do the same math.  Understanding mathematics requires different entry points and flexibility to gain the knowledge, but also multiple ways to demonstrate it as well.  I love it when my clients say, “Oh, that’s it… that’s way easier than I thought it would be.  Thanks!”  For example, using graph paper to learn transformations of quadratic functions visually cued this learner to take the next step.  Before that, this client was stuck.  What are you willing to try?