FAIRMONT — Fear of math is so pervasive, it has a name — Mathephobia.

For a discipline as concrete as mathematics, how it’s taught can be a contentious issue for parents. The math filling today’s K-12 classrooms looks nothing like the math taught 30 or 40 years ago.

However, the reason for that is more purpose driven than parents might understand.

“I think a lot of us grew up in math classrooms where we learned the shortcuts,” Stephanie Jones, Fairmont State associate professor of Math Education, said. “But, we forget when we become adults because they were a bunch of little isolated rules. Math isn’t like that. Math is this beautiful subject, it all really meshes together and builds on each other.

“Math teachers at large are trying to better learn how to show that to students. That it’s not just rules and solve these isolated problems and exercises. It really all works together and we want to help them see that bigger picture.”

Jones was one of the math education educators from Fairmont State who attended the recent 2024 West Virginia Council of Teachers of Mathematics conference. The annual event is an opportunity for math educators to network, learn from each other and improve their own knowledge.

Fairmont State sent five faculty members and six students to the conference.

Jones said gathered math educators do more than teach each other new tricks. The goal is to find new ways to explore how to communicate math concepts and teach students how math works under the hood.

“We want them to understand the math they’re doing,” she said. “Then eventually come to, ‘Oh, there’s a shortcut and here’s why it works.’ Then, they can remember it and use it more.”

To do that, Jones and her fellow teachers have to leave the realm of the abstract. Mathematics is the domain of symbols. Jones has to find a way to make what lies behind the symbols concrete.

In one exercise she cited for early math education, was using base 10 blocks to physically demonstrate certain concepts. As the lesson progresses, using the blocks becomes more and more cumbersome, until out of exasperation, students demand a different, more efficient way to express the same concepts.

At that point, the teacher introduces mathematical notation into the lesson. The symbols are no longer abstract concepts, they have meaning behind them, which was imparted by the usage of base 10 blocks.

“We don’t want them drawing pictures and using blocks forever,” Jones said. “But if we build that understanding, we hope they can know what’s going on and use the process.”

In other words, building a concrete foundation from which students can move on to more abstract concepts.

While this approach is an attempt to improve math education, it can also become a source of frustration to parents who were brought up by their math education to only know the tricks and not the concepts behind the tricks.

Jones said parents and teachers need to work together to ensure students succeed at math education.

“Maybe talk to the teacher, send a note back and say, ‘I’m not sure what you want my child to do here,’” she said. “Can we meet sometime, or can you help understand what my child’s supposed to draw because I don’t know how to help.”

Fairmont State elementary education major Kiersten Reich has seen first hand the power that understanding how mechanics work helps students retain lessons better. Reich has had Jones as a teacher for all of her elementary math classes at the university.

“If I’m just told that I need to learn something, instead of why I’m supposed to learn it, it’s not going to stick well,” she said. “Something that she always did was teach us how it worked and why it worked. I think that’s really important and helps kids get in that math mindset.”

Reich said the conference gave her the opportunity to get into other people’s heads as far as what methods they used to teach math. She said the biggest takeaway was the need for working relationships in the field, the need math teachers have to talk and discuss ideas with each other.

Fairmont State mathematics professor Amanda Smith approached the conference from the perspective of a math educator teaching at the college level. K-12 teachers have a little more freedom in how they set up math classes. The college level does not, she said. Still, it provides a good insight into how the subject is taught to incoming students.

Math education is important for future success, Smith said, even if students argue the point.

“Regardless if you’re building a house, in finance, a nurse or doctor, math is needed,” she said. “I’m worried that we’ve shied away from that, especially in West Virginia and not putting as much money and effort into education as I believe we should. It’s important for us to help kids realize at a young age what they can do when they focus on math.”

Eventually, students brought up using today’s math methods will become parents. Thanks to the work these math educators are doing to refine math education, future parents may be able to provide their children with what their parents could not — how and why it all works.

“I don’t think math education is getting worse,” Smith said. “In fact, I think it’s getting better.”