Our Philosophy
Math4Girls teaches ‘Math for Life’. Many students, especially girls, are exposed to math in uninspiring, competitive or high pressure environments leading to a loss of confidence or limiting them to following sets of learned procedures without really understanding the key concepts behind them. It’s hard to be enthusiastic and love learning in such conditions and it’s disheartening to be presented with problems outside the limited scope you have experienced and have no basis on which to tackle them. Other students excel in their current math teaching environment but want to be challenged more and dive deeper into the subject.
Math4Girls is a place where students can gain confidence, lasting understanding, a solid foundation and love of learning in a fun, stimulating environment. Vali and her associate tutors teach core Math concepts in an inquiry based style which is highly personalized to the needs of each student. Sessions are centered around areas of interest or difficulty for participants and focus on exercising their ‘math brains’ by working through problems together, asking questions and solving puzzles. Most sessions close with some form of math game aimed to be fun and to solidify concepts at the same time. Students spend time developing problem solving and reasoning skills as well as applying logic. Memorization is replaced by understanding concepts and layering patterns and connections on top. ‘Goldilocks worksheets’ are an important tool for Math4Girls learning: not too many, and the right level at the right time. Vali has found that the all girl environment for Math Clubs really helps to boost collaboration and the confidence to participate in dynamic group learning.
Vali’s math learning philosophy has developed over years of aligning with the styles and approaches promoted by such thinkers as Dr. Jo Boaler and Carol Dweck, Ph.D. ( author of ‘Mindset: The New Psychology of Success’). Emphasis during tutoring sessions is placed on praising thoughtful and persistent work rather than ‘getting the answer right fast’. Students are encouraged to take risks where they may get things wrong sometimes so they can learn to trust their own judgement and to self-correct. Math4Girls students learn that struggling to understand and solve problems is not a bad thing but a challenge that reaps big rewards at the end and during the journey.
Math4Girls is probably not how you learned math at school but take a look at the testimonials on this site to see how it has helped hundreds of students transform their abilities in this key life skill and build a love for a subject which is the basis for so many other fields as they pursue their education goals.
Resources:
Download a cool handout to see some tips, tricks and advice about how to love learning math.
Learn more about Dr. Jo Boaler’s approach for teaching math at https://www.youcubed.org/
Fabulous resource for parents supporting their kids in math learning from the University of Cambridge: https://nrich.maths.org/