Math can be a hit or miss subject for students.

When it comes to learning math, there is

often no middle ground, and this makes it a difficult subject for teachers to teach. To help students
learn math concepts in class, and have the confidence to transfer those skills to real-life situations,
educators must find ways to better teach the subject. The following are five ways to make learning
math fun. Part of me wants to say you don’t have to make mathematics fun, because it already is. Or
rather, it can be fun. It can also be frustrating, illuminating, elegant, baffling, challenging, and
addictive. The question probably needs to be “how do you make SCHOOL math(s) fun?” Or possibly,
“how do you make school math(s) meaningful and motivated?” And a typical answer to that is you
make it more like real mathematics. But I’m not sure that’s sufficient as an answer. It’s feeling like
there’s something new that’s happening in mathematics education, and it has to do with crafting
experiences that are more likely to be engaging, more likely to be playful, and more likely to be
social. Even if these existed occasionally, making them more ubiquitous actually changes how people
experience the subject.

Kids seem to be drawn to ideas about number, shape, pattern, and structure in a similar way
they are drawn to language. They learn through experimentation, play, and repetition, and the
exposure to mathematical ideas is fundamentally empowering. I think we need to create
frameworks that imitate how young kids are drawn into mathematical thinking. Mine looks like this.
Spark their curiosity. Get them engaged in an irresistible mystery. This means letting questions hang
in the air without answers. Support their productive struggle. People learn by trying to make sense
of things that aren’t obvious. This can be frustrating, but we need to let the struggle belong to the
student. If we take it from them, we take the satisfaction and joy as well. Let students own the
experience. A chance to reflect or share can let students see what they’ve done, and how far they’ve
come. If we’re just concerned about them having the right answer, we communicate that their
understanding and ownership isn’t what’s important. So we really have to give them space to take
ownership of the process and the ideas that come from it. One very important thing to note is that
play supports all of this. For mathematics, play is the engine of learning. When you’re in a playful
state, you’re more likely to be open to curiosity, more likely to struggle, and more likely to feel a
sense of ownership. So for parents as well as teachers, and especially for primary grades, I’d say the
most vital advice is to play with mathematics. Playing games is great. Playing with blocks is crucial,
especially for young children, since there’s a physical intuition that gets built that ends up providing
fundamental analogies for mathematics. Just living with questions and providing a space for
questions to live is very powerful. The second thing I’d suggest is to change your fundamental
question from “do you know the answer?” to “how are you thinking about this?” Worry less if your
kid has reached whatever bar you think they need to reach. Instead, let yourself be curious about
what’s actually happening in their mind. Mathematics has been called supercharged common sense.
If we teach people to ignore their intuition and follow nonsensical steps to arrive at answers, we’re
doing a deep disservice to them, and damaging their foundation for mathematical thinking long
term. Don’t be answer-driven. Be sense-driven.

Will all this make mathematics fun? Sometimes it will. But hopefully the real shift is in letting
mathematics be playful, challenging, empowering, meaningful, and motivated.