Some of the biggest challenges in teaching math aren鈥檛 about the numbers and operations themselves, but students鈥� attitudes toward them.
Getting students to think deeply about problems, persevere through difficult questions, and simply feel confident in math class can be tall hurdles in a subject that many children say makes them anxious.
Education Week spoke with three award-winning math teachers about how they try to lower these roadblocks in the math classroom.
All three鈥擩enna Stewart, Ashley Davis, and Charday Wilson鈥攁re recipients of the 2024-25 Milken Educator Award, a $25,000 cash prize for early- to mid-career teachers, principals, and other 糖心动漫vlog who have embraced innovative teaching practices and advanced student learning. The contest has run since 1987; Davis is the 3,000th awardee.
Read on to learn how these teachers build students鈥� conceptual understanding, navigate wide ranges of student ability, and work with colleagues to replicate promising practices.
Jenna Stewart
5th grade teacher, Longbranch Elementary School, Boone County schools, Ky.
When Jenna Stewart was a math student, she was a 鈥渒ind of a nervous Nellie,鈥� she said, worried about getting questions wrong.
Now, in the math classes she teaches, Stewart encourages her 5th graders to see mistakes not as evidence of failure, but as an opportunity to learn. It鈥檚 part of her broader goal to encourage deep thinking in her classroom.
Often, Stewart will pose one question to the class, asking students to work out the answer on a white board. When everyone finishes, students hold up their white boards to compare answers. There are always students who hesitate to share, she said, and immediately want to erase wrong answers. But Stewart stops them.
She has explained to her students: It鈥檚 better to know that you gave it 鈥�110 percent,鈥� said you were confused and asked for help, and got the answer wrong, than to not try at all. After drilling that message again and again, Stewart said, 鈥淚 usually see a mindset shift.鈥�
Even when students have mastered the steps to complete a problem correctly, she pushes them to dive deeper into the concepts and relationships that underpin math. With her more advanced students, she offers enrichment activities that aim to develop further conceptual understanding鈥攆or example, asking students to write an explanation of how they solved a problem, using mathematical vocabulary.
Sometimes, she challenges them with logic puzzles that require abstract thinking, an activity that can initially cause some high-performers to 鈥渃rumble,鈥� Stewart said.
She wants them to push past that discomfort, so that when answers don鈥檛 come easily to them, they know what to do.
Ashley Davis
4th grade teacher, Central Intermediate School, Central Community school district, La.
Ashley Davis knows that 4th grade is a transition point for some big ideas in math.
It鈥檚 around this time that many of her students are learning how to represent core concepts of addition and subtraction in more abstract ways鈥攊nstead of using counters or pictures, they鈥檙e mastering the skills involved in using the standard algorithms, like regrouping.
Still, not everyone is ready. Davis co-teaches in an inclusion classroom with a special education teacher. About half of their students have individualized education programs, or IEPs. Many of Davis鈥檚 special education students need additional practice with more concrete representation of operations. Throughout the day in small groups, 鈥渨e go back to the basics,鈥� she said.
In whole class time, though, Davis and her co-teacher have worked to develop methods that support their general education and special education students alike.
鈥淲ithin the classroom setting, what I try to do is I teach the lesson as it鈥檚 intended to be taught,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut there鈥檚 no harm in also showing the concrete and pictorial methods, even when we鈥檙e trying to move to the abstract.鈥�
In practice, this might mean having the whole class practice the same concept, but in different ways. One group might work on a subtraction problem with four-digit numbers, using the standard algorithm, while another might gradually work up to that point鈥攆irst starting with two-digit numbers represented by blocks or counters.
Davis hopes all of her students feel that they鈥檙e on a level playing field, she said. 鈥淢y goal is, if a visitor were to walk in, for them not to be able to tell which one is the special education teacher.鈥�
Charday Wilson
Master teacher, Logansport High School, DeSoto Parish schools, La.
Charday Wilson wants math teachers to be able to learn from each other.
鈥淚f we stay in the classroom that we鈥檙e in, then we have the perspective from one classroom in the building,鈥� she said.
At Logansport High School, which serves grades K-12 in Louisiana鈥檚 DeSoto Parish, Wilson facilitates educator observations between classrooms and professional learning communities so that teachers can try out practices that have worked well for their colleagues.
Through these conversations, 糖心动漫vlog at the school have discovered that they share a lot of the same challenges, Wilson said. One big issue that crosses upper elementary, middle, and high school grades is stamina鈥攈elping students develop the ability to persevere through multi-step word problems, for instance.
Another is showing their work. Many students think that being 鈥渟mart鈥� means having the ability to do math quickly, in their heads, Wilson said. But when students don鈥檛 show their thinking, it鈥檚 harder for teachers to address any misconceptions that can lead to wrong answers.
To address this, teachers have shared strategies for encouraging 鈥渧isible thinking.鈥� And schoolwide, teachers are promoting a new idea: that being 鈥渟mart鈥� isn鈥檛 just about getting the right answer, but being able to show all of the steps taken to get there.
Making that shift, Wilson said, 鈥渉as been a game changer for us.鈥�
