Common Causes of Poor Mathematics Achievement for Children and Adolescents and Strategies for Teaching

Conclusion
Teachers can help their students to overcome problems in mathematics by four processes. The first is to know what the most common problems are for the students. A teacher must then understand the causes of that problem. Implementing certain strategies when teaching math can reduce some of the common problems. Getting students to think mathematically and out loud has shown to improve their understanding of concepts significantly.
The main problems for math students discussed in the present paper were the inability to represent, or exemplify, their thinking. Teachers can solve this problem by providing students with a variety of representations and letting them discover their own methods that are meaningful. Allowing students to use the representations that they have the most facility with also improves their ability to retain mathematical vocabulary because of the meaningfulness that they can attach to the terminology. To further their improvement in mathematics vocabulary, teachers can create activities in class that encourage mathematical language during discussions and journals about experiences with math can be assigned and then peer-edited. Parents, who act as math teachers at times, should also follow the guidelines all while expressing favorable attitudes towards mathematics in everyday life.
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