Cultivating a Truth-Seeking Mindset in the Math Classroom

The math classroom can be a great place to help students grow, not only in math concepts but also in their mindset to pursue what is right.

We understand that the only reliable measurement of truth comes from God’s inerrant Word. We also understand that assumptions are made and agreed upon as we learn, practice, and teach math. While mathematics itself is a consistent and logical framework, its use and interpretation by humans can introduce fallibility. Still, math can help our students grow and develop many truth-seeking attributes.

Math involves logic, evaluation, analysis, application, and problem-solving. As a student’s brain is developing and maturing, how can we facilitate an environment that helps them make the most of math class and even helps them become a more resolute truth seeker?

It’s Not About the Grade

Like with much of education in a school environment, it’s valuable to help students understand that it is not about a grade. Grades are important but not the end goal. They are, hopefully, a true assessment of knowledge and the process used to acquire such. Unfortunately, pursuing a grade can sometimes distract students from the actual process of learning and understanding. And it can also lead to many temptations and bad habits like cheating, mimicking, cramming, and procrastinating. Helping students develop positive learning habits that pursue true learning starts with understanding that it is about the process, not just the grade.

Celebrate the Learning Process

Consequently, there needs to be an effort to celebrate the process of learning during instruction. As parents, teachers, and mentors, we need to celebrate our students’ improvements and growth, not only their good grades. This is a daily and continuous effort for educators.

As we teach and assess students during instruction, we can be intentional about pointing out and affirming their engagement, change, growth, and contemplation. Celebrate, thank, and/or encourage students when they erase and change an answer while they work, raise their hand quickly only to retract it the more they think on the question, ask for help or clarification, help a classmate (when appropriate), discuss content on a deeper level, want to talk about a personal experience the content reminded them of, or get frustrated and crinkle up their paper because they want to start all over.

We want to encourage the positive aspects of content engagement as students correct errors of thought or understanding and dive deeper into the content while making personal connections. Celebrate what really needs celebrated.

Create Opportunities for Healthy Correction

We can also create opportunities for healthy correction and the pursuit of understanding through our math assessments. In a math environment where showing your work and participating in discussions on personal thinking processes is expected, allowing “prechecks” is very helpful to cultivate a mindset of growth. Here’s how it looks in our math classes:

1. On most days, students begin their extra practice/homework at the end of class. During this time, students are permitted to ask the teacher to precheck their assignment with no penalties. The teacher will circle the problems that are incorrect with no specific correction information. From there, students can go back to the problem, study, find errors, and rework for the correct solution.
2. After homework is submitted the following day, students are given time at the beginning of class to ask questions about any specific one or two problems from the homework. The teacher or another student will work through that problem on the board for the entire class.
3. Once students receive their graded homework, they are allowed to do “corrections.” Corrections are when the student reworks and corrects any incorrect problems on a separate sheet of paper. They then staple that paper to the original homework assignment for evaluation. The student can earn half credit back for each incorrect problem that they correctly resubmit.
4. And finally, students are always encouraged to correct assessments (for no points) and are required to file them in their math notebooks for future study and exam review.

These opportunities create multiple avenues for students to improve and grow toward complete understanding, which cultivates that truth-seeking mindset.

Conclusion

Math class can be built to help our students develop brains that want to learn and grow, not only in mathematics but also in every area of life—especially in their pursuit of ultimate truth. Remember to celebrate actions and attributes of students who are truly engaged in the learning, correcting, and growing processes during instructional times. And intentionally use assessments and feedback to cultivate a culture of understanding, change, and true growth. In the end, our time in math class can help contribute to God’s work in each of our students’ lives.