Why Do Some People Struggle with Math? | BBC CrowdScience Podcast

When CrowdScience listener Israel from Papua New Guinea did badly on a maths test in third grade, he looked around the class and realised that almost all the other students had received a better result.

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Since then, he has always wondered: Why are some people better at maths than others?

And Israel isn’t the only one to think about this. Our listeners from all over the world describe their relationships with numbers, which run the full gamut from love to hate. So are we all in control of our own mathematical fate, or are some people just naturally bad at it?

Presenter Anand Jagatia hears about studies of identical and non-identical twins showing how genetics and environment interact to shape our mathematical abilities.

Our numerical abilities are not set in stone. It’s always possible to improve and getting rid of negative feelings and anxiety around maths could be the key, says psychologist Iro Xenidou-Dervou.

Some countries seem to support children’s maths skills better than others. China and Finland both rank highly in international league tables. Education experts in both countries discuss whether there are any keys to a successful mathematics education.

And there is something underlying our ability to do maths in the first place - our number sense. We hear what happens when this number sense does not work as intended and what can be done about it.

00:00 Can you solve this maths problem?
01:14 CrowdScience listener Israel from Papua New Guinea
04:13 Can you be naturally good or bad at maths?
10:00 Maths anxiety
14:22 Top performing countries
19:20 The cultures that don’t use counting words
22:19 Dyscalculia
26:05 Emma’s story
27:46 Maths problem – the answer

Watch more episodes of CrowdScience here 👉🏽 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLz_B0PFGIn4cT4qluPKNtMmBAPPrpoxvT

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