I believe that one of the strategies that teachers can do to give students confidence to improve or increase their self-efficacy and self-determination in mathematics is providing students with the alternative perception of what math is.  As were slowly learning in this class math is not just numbers, formulas, word problems etc. but is embedded in everything we do.  Just like any other class it is important for teacher to get to know their students, and create a positive relationship with their students.  Ones we know what students are interested we can then make the concept or content more relatable and therefore more fun.  I can’t help but be reminded of a scene in a movie.  I am not a 100% sure but I think it was coach carter where one of the athletes was struggling with math specifically trigonometry.  The tutor knew that this athlete was interested in basketball therefore took the lesson out into the court.  Using different plays on where they both stood in relation to the hoop, the student could make a connection and learn the differences between angles and the types of triangles made based on those angles. 

        Even though this film is quite old suggesting that this method of teaching well known, many math classrooms that I have observed and been at as a student still teaches with the same old methods using the same generic questions on the textbook.  These questions consist of how fast a train or plane needs to go to… However, how many of these questions are even relatable or interesting to students?  We need start to be creative, make up our own questions and inquiry that students can relate to and apply. 

        Last week we looked at how art can be used as a tool to teach math such as Susan Pointe’s Whorls, we were also introduced to weaving which I really enjoyed doing.  I wasn’t even aware that an activity such as weaving represents math concepts and there I was experience “flow” enjoying the activity not being aware of how much time is passing by, and even had a difficult time stopping unless I finished at the end of class.  These are the kind of experiences we need to create for students to alter their perception that math is this one-sided coin. 

        Another way we can increase confidence in our students is providing the optimal challenge.  This is where modification and extension plays such an important role in our lessons.  We need to provide students the opportunities to be successful and that might mean giving an easy question.  Especially for students who have very low self-confidence, we need to give them the opportunities to gain success because it is when they find success where they will feel more competent to move on to the next step.  In my experience, the language and attitude that many teachers have when it comes to teaching math is simply encourage students to keep up with the work or else they will be left behind.  I believe that this is the reason why so many students simply give because they know they are already behind and there is no initiative from the teacher to help them re-learn the knowledge they didn’t fully understand.  Instead the full responsibility is placed on the student to catch up, to make sure all homework is done, and then approach the teacher for any other assistance.  How can students even do homework effectively and in a timely manner when they don’t understand?

        Overall, I believe teachers needs to be creative in the way they present knowledge, especially in subjects that are perceived as difficult to so many.  Give students an alternative lens see math from a different perspective.  

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