How to Learn Math

SCOPE is co-sponsoring a new course (EDUC115N) on Stanford’s free on-line platform. Taught by Professor Jo Boaler, the course is designed for teachers, parents, and administrators to help students learn math and engage with math successfully. The course will involve 8 x 15 minute sessions and will include tasks, activities, and discussions that interested learners can spend more time on, probably 1-2 hours per session. The course will also include interviews with leading figures such as Professors Carol Dweck (Stanford University) and Sebastian Thrun (Udacity, Google, Stanford). The course is intended to present a few short but powerful research ideas that can help students develop a new approach to math and new perceptions of themselves as capable math learners.

Ultimately, the course will be offered to students directly (any learners of math, from middle school to adult). The student course will be a short intervention inviting students to take a new approach to math and their learning. In the parent/teacher version participants will be invited into a conversation about the ideas, through forum pages, and given particular strategies and resources that will help in the move to the new Common Core standards.