Professor researches age-old question: Why do students struggle in math? | Academics & Research - The Daily Cougar

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College math courses are notorious for being incredibly difficult for the unprepared, and many students did not learn the necessary material in high school. They may even suffer from a math disability for a variety of reasons, observes C. McRae Peavy, Assistant News Editor, The Cougar

UH associate professor of psychology Paul Cirino is researching why students struggle with math.
Photo: Corbin Ayres/The Cougar

UH associate professor of psychology Paul Cirino was awarded a $2.5 million grant by the National Science Foundation to research college-level remedial math students in an attempt to understand where this math disability could come from.

“There’s a bunch of different things that go into how you do in math,” Cirino said. “Some of these are based on your history — how many math courses have you taken? Which math courses have you taken? How was your educational experience? Did you have good teachers?”

Most of the data that has been collected about math disabilities comes from elementary school students, Cirino said. There has been a push to study older students over the last decade or so, but there is still little known about math difficulties in college students, he said.

In addition to a student’s educational history, their cognitive ability is also a factor of their ability to do well in math, Cirino said. Recollection, concentration and language aptitude are all parts of general cognitive ability, he said...

Computer information systems freshman Alice Ho said she struggles in her 1330 pre-calculus course, which proves problematic since math is one of the building blocks necessary for her to succeed in her career field, she said.

Ho entered college with a good background in math due to exceptional high school math teachers. This goes to show that students may still struggle with math despite having the basic skills required to succeed...

Since it is the first year this program has been instituted, there aren’t yet any data on student grades in calculus. Hamilton said they do have enrollment patterns that show many more students are taking pre-cal this year compared to previous years.

“Once we understand the combinations of factors that create a math learning disability, we can identify who may be more likely to struggle and by uncovering the nature of that difficulty,” said Cirino in a UH press release, “we can begin to make inroads into how we can meet that need.”  
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Source: The Daily Cougar