MAAP 2 STEM

Now that you have prepared yourself for the journey, let’s discuss a few things you can do to be successful once you are in the classroom.

Spoiler alert. Some, maybe all, of these suggestions may seem too simple. However, I am a firm believer that, in many cases, it is possible to do more with less. There is no need to overcomplicate this.

Understand that you and the instructor are in a relationship. Ideally, there will be trust, respect, and open communication. With regard to communication, a crucial piece is active listening. 

So, let’s delve into our first strategy that can be done after you have entered the classroom.

Pay attention.

As a student, active listening helped me tremendously in a math class. How? Well, the instructor provided the blueprint for what would be done and how it would be done. I discovered that if I could consistently replicate the work that had been shown in class, then I generally performed well, which was primarily due to listening.

At first glance, one might think that this is so obvious it does not deserve mentioning. Trust and believe, it does. To illustrate, I once had a student who always talked with their neighbor while I explained concepts. (And yes, we discussed the talking, but they continued.) While the student’s “chattiness” was not disruptive to the class overall, they were impacting their and their neighbor’s abilities to comprehend the material. Then, without fail, after I finished explaining the concept, the student would ask me to explain it all over again.

There are a few things to point out here. First, repeating explanations due to lack of attention is not an efficient use of class time. Second, lack of attention undermines the foundation of respect. Third, lack of attention limits a student’s ability to actively participate in class.

Listening in a classroom is similar to listening on a job. Someone will provide instructions, which you will receive and then use to complete a task. Is it possible to complete the task without listening? Sure. In the case of my talkative student, who was very smart, they would routinely comment on how they taught themselves and learned it on their own. Congratulations, but we could have arrived at the destination sooner. 

It cannot be emphasized enough that listening in a mathematics classroom is an essential tool that will lead to positive results. To quote a line from Forrest Gump, “That’s all I have to say about that.”

See you next week with another strategy to consider once you have entered a mathematics classroom.