🧩10 Ways to identify your child's knowledge gaps in Math that affect their potential
🧩 What are knowledge-gaps?
They are missing pieces of information required to progress from one topic to the next. Think of them as a missing piece to a puzzle. You cannot complete a puzzle without all of the pieces.
Knowledge gaps will get larger if the topic that's giving trouble goes unaddressed. Going back to our puzzle analogy– it's like building another puzzle with even fewer pieces. Eventually, the puzzle image cannot be made out and it leaves a student…well, puzzled.
⚠️ DO NOT LET KNOWLEDGE GAPS GROW– focus on resolving their confusion.
This is why the whole objective of our math tutoring program, is to address all the primary fundamentals of math. In this way, students increase their math proficiency by having a strong foundation for complex topics.
💪🏽 All topics return MORE powerful as you enter higher math. This means that the underlying level of understanding from the student needs to be strong because it will be assumed that it is. Consequently, math problems will be more involved than they were previously.
Your child is NOT bad at math, they just need to start filling in the gaps to build the image of the puzzle.
Here are some ways to identify knowledge-gaps in math:
Unfamiliar with basic math vocabulary: ex. quotient, product, linear, factors, integer, etc.
Avoid math HW, math study time and instead spend more time on subjects they already excel at.
Attempts to solve a problem using one method and gives up.
Doesn't know multiplication facts by heart, meaning, rapid fire answers!
Doesn't know multiplication “doubles”: (2x2, 3x3, 4x4, etc.).
Unable to articulate how they arrive at an answer or why they’re using a certain method (they might be guessing or don't understand that topic well enough).
Does not attempt to solve problems and gives up before trying.
Does not recognize common division facts: 6 div by 2, 36 div by 3, 40 div by 5, ect.
Say things like, “Math is hard,” “I hate math,” “I'm not good at math.”
Underlines or highlights random words and numbers or non-keywords in a word problem.
For some students, only adjusting a few of these gaps will make an immense difference in their understanding.
😵💫 Unfortunately, many times students adopt a black and white mindset and these gaps will go unaddressed. As you know, this will only feed into their math anxiety leading to an ongoing cycle of larger knowledge gaps and more fear.
👀 Keep an eye out for details and make those modifications as soon as you can :)
If you’ve read this far, come check out how our math tutoring program can help you.
In a free zoom chat we can talk about your questions regarding our Math program. Book a time with me HERE.
Or learn more about our program HERE.
🌈 Happy Learning!
