See the Math, Change the World

Math is an essential part of a child’s learning development and future success. As technology advances, there is a real worry across the education landscape that students will lose the essential skills outside of computation that are built in the math classroom. How do we support learners to take an interest in math, and what are the benefits to their overall learning journey? 

How do we Support Math Based Skills

In this episode of Conference Connections, an interview series with K20 thought leaders, we chat with Twana Young, Vice President of Curriculum and Research for the MIND Research Institute. The edCircuit team caught up with Twana at TCEA 2023. The topic of this discussion was math learning, student support, and equity in math education. 

“A big part of [our program] is focusing on thinking, reasoning, and problem solving. Our mission at MIND is to equip all students to solve the worlds most challenging problems. Math is how you solve problems. We want to make sure we support students in the thinking process that is math.” 

Thinking Like A Mathematician

At the beginning of this conversation, Twana explores how math is more than just computational skills. Math is a way of solving problems, and equipping students with mathematical thinking skills means they have a knowledge base they can use to solve all kinds of problems. Foundational skills in math are important to music, art, language arts, and every subject in between. In teaching students these fundamental skills, they develop a mathematical approach to critical thinking that can help them solve any problem. 

The unique approach that MIND employs is a spacial/temporal model. According to their website, the mode gives students: “the ability to mentally move objects in space and time to solve multi-step problems. It’s what allows us, for instance, to load an assortment of suitcases, boxes and bags in a car trunk without relying exclusively on trial-and-error.” 

Building Math Skills

In the second half of the conversation, Twana explores ST Math, MIND’s newest product to enhance math learning. ST Math’s model provides students with a basic understanding of “making sense” of things. Using this model, there is almost a neuroscience approach to their learning model. The learning is facilitated, but the student is responsible for working their way through the content and developing requisite skills. 

Using this model, they are encouraging students to build a learning ‘Schema.’ Schema is connected learning regarding our lived experiences. 

Future Core Math Curriculum

The conversation closes with a discussion on MIND’s exciting new core curriculum. They have collected research on math learning and student success for years, and they are now leveraging that experience to develop a curriculum for the K6 market that will be released in 2025. The program focuses on building learning experiences. The program will be inclusively researched and designed with educators, families, and students across the country. 

Overall, this conversation highlights how important math learning can be and how the MIND Research Institute is revolutionizing the approach to student success in mathematics and problem-solving. 

To learn more about the MIND Research Institute, visit their website and follow them on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. 

For more episodes on Conference Connections, visit edCircuit.

Learn more about the participants below.