{
  "id": 5251161,
  "title": "Feature: Demystifying Mathematics: Building Confidence In Young Learners",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/03/feature-demystifying-mathematics-building-confidence-in-young-learners",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-09-03T05:06:21.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Chronicle Ghana",
    "slug": "the-chronicle-ghana",
    "url": "https://thechronicle.com.gh/feature-demystifying-mathematics-building-confidence-in-young-learners/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In the quiet of a child's evening routine, mathematics homework can cause both frustration and confusion. The parent, trying their best to explain, may eventually declare, \"My child is just not a math person.\" While this phrase may seem innocuous, its repetition can solidify a damaging belief that follows the child for years. Various factors contribute to children's struggles with mathematics, including gaps in prior knowledge, teaching methods, language barriers, anxiety, insufficient practice, or difficulty with certain concepts. However, this should not be mistaken for a lack of ability.\n\nInstead of assuming children struggle with mathematics, we should consider if they are having trouble with the language used to teach it. Picture a child asked to perform a play in a foreign language before being taught the individual words. They may memorize lines to pass, but once the script changes, their memory falters. Similarly, children can memorize mathematical symbols but struggle when the script changes, leading to mechanical and fragile understanding.\n\nMathematics is a language with its own vocabulary, symbols, conventions, and rules. Everyday words like greater, difference, average, and product have specialized meanings in mathematics. Symbols such as x + y = z may be introduced before children comprehend what the letters and symbols represent. When calculation precedes meaning, mathematics becomes mechanical and fragile.\n\nTo demystify mathematics, we must recognize it as a language, not merely a subject. Mathematical terms must be explicitly taught, but everyday words also acquire specialized meanings. Children need to learn not only mathematical procedures but also how to read, interpret, and communicate mathematical ideas.\n\nConsider division, which can be introduced through a relatable scenario: dividing 12 plantains among three friends. The child can visualize the situation using objects or drawings and explain the answer. Only after this experience should the child encounter the formal representation: 12 ÷ 3 = 4. This progression—from experience to language to meaning to representation to symbol to reasoning—suggests that meaning should come before manipulation.\n\nGhanaian children already engage in mathematics daily. Market prices, kitchen measurements, journey distances, and football statistics all involve mathematical concepts. Parents and teachers should help children recognize these connections, building bridges between everyday experiences and formal mathematics. For example, \"fair sharing\" can become division, \"how much more?\" can become subtraction and difference, \"what part of the whole?\" can become fractions, \"how likely is it?\" can become probability, and \"same value\" can become equality.\n\nThe role of parents is crucial in changing children's attitudes toward mathematics. Encouraging children to discuss problems before solving them, asking open-ended questions, and emphasizing reasoning over correct answers can foster confidence. In Ghana's multilingual environment, indigenous languages can serve as bridges to mathematical understanding, helping children move from familiar explanations to formal mathematical English and symbols. The goal is not to weaken English-language mathematics but to make it more accessible. Ultimately, mathematics should challenge, discipline, and require practice and persistence, but children must learn to distinguish between \"this is difficult\" and \"I cannot do this.\"",
  "summary": "At the end of a long school day, a child sits at the dining table, staring at a page filled with numbers. Beside the child, an equally frustrated parent tries to explain the same mathematics problem for what feels like the fourth time. The child remains confused. The parent grows impatient. Eventually, someone says: “My […] The post Feature: Demystifying Mathematics: Building Confidence In Young…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}