Memorable events – part 2

Here we bring you two more ‘stories’ that were recalled by practitioners at our May event:

Anon

Positive experience

That my own learning experience could be enjoyable, mistakes allowed me to explore other avenues using more heuristic approaches. I did not need a knowledgeable other to instruct me.

Negative experience

Although an experienced teacher and facilitator, I am a poor problem solver! I have had a difficult/challenging journey to develop these skills, I have only started. Why do we solve low level problems with much higher level mathematical skills?

Anon

Positive experience

Being required to teach statistics to A level psychology students I assumed I knew very little and went on a day course which reviewed the syllabus. I found myself sitting through a number of sessions thinking “yes, I’m fine with that” and it was only at 3:30pm [that] we covered anything I wasn’t confident about. That fact took me back to college with confidence that I could bring to my teaching, to the extent that Biology colleagues would send their students to me with coursework stats!

Negative experience

My daughter’s approach to maths homework became increasingly panic and emotion driven to the extent that she could not apply her mind to even simple arithmetic. She would freeze, try to distract me from the question, anything to avoid thinking about it. The reactions got worse until she’d be in tears.