How to succeed in maths? - meeting with Thomas Rodrigues (school coach and CEO of Porte à prof)

What are the common mistakes you see in terms of pedagogy, preventing students from progressing effectively?

Thomas Rodrigues: For students, what I see most often is that they have no idea how they function, how they learn. They try to do their best by copying what their classmates do and they say to themselves "if it works for others, it will work for me". In general, this is never the case. They have not learned to question who they are as learners and students, and they try to compensate for this as much as possible.

We can wonder about the subject quite young, but we must already know that it is possible, having been made aware of it by the adults around us. If we are alone in our learning path, we can have this reflection in adolescence.

Which adults can help with this process?

Parents or adults who surround the student at school. This can be in class or during extracurricular hours, when we are faced with our homework or when we have work to do. We can think about the difficulties we encounter, the way that could suit us to approach things. In class, in general, the teacher does not always have the time to deal with this kind of questioning, with 30 students to manage. So it is mainly work in advance at home that I suggest doing.

What advice would you give to parents who have an aversion to maths, to avoid passing it on to their child(ren) and not creating obstacles later on?

I think that through dialogue we can get there. If the parent has had difficulties in maths, they will inevitably transmit some of their stress and the problems they had with the subject. I tell parents that maths can be scary. If you can't do it, you find yourself useless. And then, it's a vicious circle.

To begin with, we can de-dramatize through play as you do at Topla or through analogies. Explain that numbers are not something unknown. They are concrete. They exist in the real world, through the mathematical objects that we manipulate.

The ^second approach would be to go in small doses, but to encourage regular practice and to understand that mathematics is not rocket science. There is nothing to invent. In math, there is no real creation to be done on the part of the student, as is the case for an essay in French.

Some children say that math is useless. What do you say to that?

As a coach, it's quite difficult to answer because it's a judgment specific to the student and it will be hard to change his mind. On the other hand, we can try to take the opposite view, by asking questions. By saying: "OK, that's your opinion, but if you get bad grades in math, what will happen?" The student then realizes that this would lead to a bad record and that he would not move up to the next class or that a good grade in this subject would allow him to pass his next exam. These are small tactics that will lead the student to see the interest of math, at least for the future.

Sometimes students may think that it won't be useful to them in their lives. I tend to use adult examples in this case. "You'll see when you do your taxes if it's useful or not?" and I show how to calculate your taxes and use percentages. Or by explaining that to make a cake, you have to do a rule of three. If I take 18 eggs when I only need 12, I would have lost money when I could have used proportionality to get by. Same when we go camping and want to share the shopping with friends. I also give examples from my job as an engineer: How do you launch a satellite? How do you manage its trajectory? Even if we don't necessarily see it, there is math behind this.

What does the playful side bring to learning?

This will really help some students to de-dramatize the thing and especially to make them know maths in a way that is closer to them. This works very well for students who do not see the usefulness of maths in particular or those who like to have fun in class, to be talkative, to discuss. In this case, the game is particularly recommended. These are students who, if they are in a framework that is too rigid imposed by the teachers, will have difficulty opening up to the subject. Hence the fact of making learning through games more flexible.

If you had to give 3 tips to really progress in maths, what would they be?

I have more than three because I am finishing an e-book on this, but I will give you the 3 main ones. There are things that are not necessarily said in class but which are very important. The first is to focus on understanding the concepts. Without understanding, there will be no success. So make sure you understand the objects you are handling, even if it means reviewing them later.

The second piece of advice I would give, and often neglected by students, is to practice a basic foundation in calculation and geometry. To practice well, you can make calculation sheets every week or solve geometry exercises, like you would do scales in music. In order to practice the calculation part, which is not necessarily the most interesting, but which is worth points during tests and exams. This allows you to go faster and concentrate on mathematical reasoning afterwards.

And the last piece of advice is to succeed in making math resonate within yourself. That is to say, succeed in appropriating mathematical objects as concrete objects, which you know how to manipulate, which you have understood, so that it makes sense to you.

Thomas Rodrigues' ebook will be available soon on his website www.porteaprof.fr

It is called “The 5 keys to regaining self-confidence and finally succeeding in mathematics”. It addresses learning profiles and gives keys to getting through it and going beyond your fear of math when you are a student.

As for the Topla range of games to help children with mathematics, you will find it right here :

And here are some of our bestsellers for math: