Summary
Highlights
The episode begins with a mathematical riddle involving farm animals. The host then introduces the main question from listener Israel: 'Why am I really bad in math? And why are others better than me in math?' Israel shares his personal struggles with maths since third grade, highlighting how studying hard didn't yield the same results as for his peers.
CrowdScience listeners share their diverse experiences with mathematics, ranging from finding it complicated and frustrating to excelling and loving it as a 'mysterious puzzle'.
Professor Yulia Kovas, a geneticist and psychologist, discusses whether mathematical ability is 'naturally' good or bad. She explains that while talent can run in families, it's influenced by both genetics and environmental factors. Her research on a large-scale twin study suggests that 50-60% of mathematical learning and ability in secondary school and adulthood is heritable. She introduces the concept of 'exposome' to describe the broad range of environmental factors and experiences that shape an individual.
Iro Xenidou-Dervou from Loughborough University emphasises that everyone can improve in maths, even if not becoming an expert, and highlights the crucial role of beliefs, attitudes, and emotions. She explains how maths anxiety can overload working memory, hindering problem-solving. A study is mentioned where highly maths-anxious children performed worse when their working memory was interfered with.
Professor Yulia Kovas, Zhenzhen Miao, and Pekka Räsänen discuss international approaches to maths education. Finland and East Asian countries consistently perform well in PISA surveys. Both Finland and China prioritise foundational skills and highly qualified, respected teachers. Finland, in particular, focuses on supporting struggling students, leading to fewer underperforming children, although its top performers are similar to other countries.
Professor Brian Butterworth explains that humans have an innate sense of numbers, even in non-numerate cultures without counting words. He describes how this can be tested and introduces dyscalculia, a learning disorder affecting number sense, which is believed to affect about 5% of the population. A game designed to help dyscalculic individuals understand numbers through sets of beads is discussed, though its long-term effects are still being researched.
The episode concludes by reiterating that mathematical ability is influenced by genes, environment, education, motivation, and emotions. The importance of perseverance and belief in one's ability to improve is stressed. Emma, who struggled with mental arithmetic but pursued astrophysics, exemplifies that 'being bad at maths' is not always a barrier to advanced mathematical subjects. Finally, the solution to the opening farm animal riddle is revealed: one horse, two goats, and three sheep.