What even is math trauma?

Math Therapy

Each episode, Vanessa discusses the impacts that math trauma can have on our collective relationship with math. But she realized she's never explained what it is! In this episode she defines what math trauma actually is, unpacks why traumatic educational experiences happen more often in math than in other subjects, and lists 8 common causes of math trauma for educators to be aware of.

• The tweet that started it all
• Free webinar by Dr. Kasi Allen: Math Trauma: Healing Our Classrooms, Our Students, and Our Discipline

Connect with us:

• Vanessa Vakharia: @themathguru (Insta, Twitter, TikTok)
• Math Therapy: @maththerapy (Twitter)

Chapters

1. Intro (00:00:00)

2. What is math trauma? (00:01:58)

3. Why is math trauma-prone? (00:07:13)

4. 8 common causes of math trauma (00:10:05)

5. 1) One-shot assessments (00:11:48)

6. 2) Grouping students by ability (00:13:06)

7. 3) Measuring understanding with speed (00:14:07)

8. 4) Prioritizing solo work over collabs (00:15:26)

9. 5) "It's ok to be bad at math" (00:15:51)

10. 6) Putting kids on the spot (00:18:09)

11. 7) Answers > Reasoning (00:19:19)

12. 8) Privileging one right method (00:20:03)

13. Conclusion (00:21:05)