Talent vs Hard Work

Am I to Be or Not to Be a “Math Person”, That is the Question

The last few weeks, we have explored how our views in math can hinder us from succeeding. By adopting a growth mindset, we can overcome our struggles and learn from our mistakes. But what if you don’t struggle? We discussed phrases such as “I’m not a math person”, and “I’m just not good at math” and challenged it saying that “everyone can be a math person with the right attitude”. But what if you are a natural “math person” and math comes easily to you innately? Does talent exist or are “math people” just work harder than the rest of us? I believe that some people are naturally better at math than others. This does not mean that if you are not born with natural talent you cannot be a “math person”. It just means that more work is involved to get to the same level. 

Being someone who has struggled with math, growth mindset and learning from mistakes is an applicable strategy that I can embrace. I want to improve, and I know that I will succeed if I persevere through my mistakes and learn from them. I am growing my brain and learning valuable skills through my effort. But how does talent benefit a “math person”? Is it better to be talented or to work hard? 

Level: Minimal Effort

This idea of talent verses hard work reminds me of my musical experiences growing up. I was always told I have a talent for singing, and my experiences reinforced this idea. I barely practiced, yet I succeeded through each lesson. Each year in competitions, I received high marks and often placed in first and second place. In my teens, I represented my city in provincials five years in a row. And I did all this with minimal practice. I breezed by on talent and little effort. I still learned new techniques to improve, but I didn’t have to work very hard to apply the techniques like others in my studio. Even when I went to university for singing, and was rudely awakened to the concept that talent only gets you so far, I was still able to learn songs the night before a lesson and be praised for the “hard work you clearly put in this week”.

I’m not trying to brag. It was just my reality. And I’m not sure having this talent was a good thing. I struggled a lot through university when my talent didn’t cut it, and I think I hit walls harder than those who might not have had it so “easy”.

Does Talent Only Get You So Far? 

A study conducted by David Hambrick and Elizabeth Meinz explores if talent or hard work ultimately fares better in the real world. Their findings conclude that while talent initially fares better, hard work almost always wins out. This is because people who are talented are often LAZY.

Yes, I’ll admit it, I am! Why should I work hard if I can naturally get away with minimal effort and still succeed?

Except my talent only got me so far. When techniques and repertoire being challenging, I didn’t have the growth mindset skills to persevere and work hard. I just despaired and struggled and resisted. I was too lazy to try to work hard. And it killed me that I wasn’t “good” anymore, and I suffered with mental health issues in my final year. Those in my program who might not have been at the same level I was at when I first arrived at school were now surpassing me. Those rare gems who were talented AND knew how to work hard were superstars. But it was the people who knew how to work hard that really understood the craft. They embraced their struggles, learned from the mistakes, took the time to develop their skills. This allowed them to gain a deeper understanding of how to sing.

Mistakes? What Mistakes? 

In our math classrooms, we need to emphasise the importance of making mistakes to learn. We also need to make sure we challenge our students enough to allow them to make those mistakes. We focus a lot on the students who struggle with math. But we also need to remember that maybe those students are better off than those who don’t struggle with math. They will know how to persevere, how to develop a plan to improve, and the many components of a concept. Those with talent might miss out on all those valuable lessons, and become content with a shallow understanding of math.

Creating Hard Working and Talented Superstars 

How can we differentiate our instruction to allow all students to develop perseverance and hard work, even if they are “talented”?

One solution suggested is the use of open ended math problems. These allow all students to explore a variety of solutions to a problem that might not have a definitive answer. Focusing on the HOW they solved the problem rather than only their final answer will teach students how to break down their problem-solving skills and gain an understanding on a deeper level.

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Mathemathics and Me. Volume 2

I'm Back!

Hello, internet! You might have noticed my hiatus from blogging for the last few months. I promise it was not wasted time. I began my internship in my teaching placement, which was quickly followed by my first teaching block. With the help of my lovely associate teacher, I gained rich experience teaching primarily math and music throughout the many weeks of my block. Who would have thought the girl recovering from a bad relationship with math for most of her adolescent life would end up teaching it every single day in her first block? Talk about break away from your comfort zone!

A Short Update:

St. Catharines Museum Education Kits

After successfully completing my teaching block, I went back to classes for a semester. After that, I got a fantastic summer job working at the St. Catharines Museum and Welland Canals Centre as a Program Assistant. I spent the summer organizing tours for little kids, designing and facilitating activities for events, and most importantly, I created a huge teacher resource! My partner and I redeveloped the museum’s Education Kits. These are rented out by teachers for 12 days, complete with lessons and materials. The kit was less than ideal when we got out hands on it. Activities were loosely connected to the curriculum, if at all, and provided little education background. The materials were old or needed to be expanded to be properly used. By the end of the summer, we created 64 new lesson plans for grades 1-8, covering an 8-day unit plan. We also designed, made, and coded all the materials! The documents look official and I’m very excited to see what it looks like when it comes back from the printers. The process of unit planning for multiple grades, and creating all the corresponding materials is going to be so beneficial when I begin unit planning for this year’s classes and teaching blocks.

Year Two: Building Bridges

Classes began last week and boy, are we hitting the ground running this year! And yes, I am once again thrown into the gladiator ring with my old nemesis, Mathematics. As I’ve stated above, last year we began to build the broken bridge brick by brick. Each brick contained a base of Growth Mindset, with additives of New Experiences, Research, Determination, and a dash of Fun. The bridge is basic but solid. I can cross it easily with little to fear. But it isn’t anything grand or expansive. I shouldn’t get ahead of myself though. It will take many years to build a masterpiece with Math. This year, I will just work to make some upgrades to further support this bridge with Math.

I was a little unsure on how to approach these upgrades during the first Mathematics class this semester. I came in with the ingredients that had worked last year, prepped and ready to go. My professor started the class with a card trick and tasked us to figure out why it works, and alternative solutions to continue to make it work. My group struggled to figure out the basic mechanics of the trick, forfeiting and asking for help from another group. Now we had to find the next number that would also allow the trick to work. This is where all my ingredients went stale, and it all started with the deterioration of Growth Mindset.

The professor had stated at the beginning of the trick that it was the “simplest card trick”. Yet, we couldn’t even figure out how to do the trick on our own, never mind how to break down the patterning. Already, I felt like Math was beginning its old tricks again, working me up with an overwhelming challenge that I was just too stupid to understand, yet it was supposed to be “simple”. I barely understood what the next step was supposed to be. "Find the next number that would work." I began to rack my brain for mathematical formulas or solutions to find the number. Would fractions work? No, the deck wasn’t confirmed to be accurately divided during the trick, so it wasn’t a case of fractions. Addition and subtraction would also need to be determined by an equally divided deck. What about multiples of 3? Did it have to do with prime numbers? It became more and more overwhelming as the options flooded my mind with to only hit a wall and crash together in a confusing whirlpool. Once that happened, I just gave up. Someone would tell us the answer in a minute. But we didn’t. The worst part is I still don’t know the answer because we never discussed the problem. I don’t know how to problem solve for next time!

And thus, the Growth Mindset I honed all last year disappeared in a flash. The bridge with Math began to crack and crumble. It’s still intact, but it is not as strong as it was when I walked into the classroom. How could my efforts give way so quickly?

Too Good to be True…

This experience is something I want to remember when teaching my future students. I want to remember the confidence I thought was strongly assembled from the year before yielded so easily at the first sign of a challenge. I want to remember how the idea that a task was “simple” made me feel like I was stupid because I didn’t understand it. I want to remember how I gave up on myself and my determination to keep trying because it was just “too hard”. I was never good at math anyway. Why bother trying again? Clearly, I hadn’t learned as much as I thought I did last year.

It was that easy to lose my growth mindset and confidence. Math and I were fighting again after we had worked so hair to repair our relationship. It was easier for me to fall back into my belief that I was not a “math person”, a myth I have internalized for a very long time. And when we didn’t discuss the solution, I was left with the feeling that everyone else had gotten the answer, so it wasn’t taken up. I felt ostracized by math! I want to remember this will happen to my students too.

The Fine Art of Criticism….

We work with students to build their confidence, giving them opportunities for positive learning experiences and encouraging them to foster a growth mindset. But it’s just like criticism, you need three to five positive comments to outweigh one negative comment. One negative experience with math is going to take at least twice if not three times as many positive experiences to reaffirm confidence and secure a strong growth mindset. Positive experiences don’t need to mean that there is no challenge and the student understands the concept easily. Positive experiences mean the student is given the support they need to find the solution. They need to feel safe enough to explore their options. It will give them an opportunity to learn from their mistakes, and do better in a similar situation.

To provide positive learning experiences for our students, we need to be careful how we phrase our questions, avoiding stating something is “simple”. We need to model the tools students might need to solve similar problems. We need to provide encouragement during mistakes and during each step in the problem-solving process. We need to be transparent in discussing the solution and emphasize the strategy of learning from mistakes.

My goal for this year is to find more positive experiences with math to outweigh the negative experiences. I want to upgrade the bridging relationship I have worked so hard to mend over the last year. My goal is to build a bridge strong enough to support my students who might be struggling to build their own crumbling bridge with math too.

How will you encourage your students to continuously foster a growth mindset when the struggle becomes too real?

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