RESOURCES for Ep 61. Why students struggle in math and how to fix it with Barbara Oakley and John Mighton

The transcript for this episode is here

You can listen to the episode here: Chalk & Talk Podcast.

Coursera course

Making Math Click: Understand Math Without Fear

Free course with certificate: https://www.coursera.org/learn/math-click?action=showPartnerSupportedAccess

Guest’s webpages

Barbara Oakley’s webpage: https://barbaraoakley.com

JUMP Math: https://jumpmath.org/

Articles mentioned in the episode

WA math education is in crisis.  Here’s what could help by Barbara Oakley, The Seattle Times, October 19, 2025 https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/wa-math-education-is-in-crisis-heres-what-could-help/

Kaminski, Jennifer & Sloutsky, Vladimir. (2025). Children’s Acquisition of a Novel Mathematical Relation from Images of Simple Versus Rich Objects. Early Childhood Education Journal. 1-12. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/397436697_Children's_Acquisition_of_a_Novel_Mathematical_Relation_from_Images_of_Simple_Versus_Rich_Objects

Kaminski, Jennifer & Sloutsky, V.M.. (2010). Concreteness and relational matching in preschoolers. Proceedings of the XXXII annual conference of the Cognitive Science Society. 335-340. https://mathcog.org/Publications/ConcretenessAndRelationalMatchingInPreschoolers.pdf

Kaminski, Jennifer & Sloutsky, Vladimir. (2012). Extraneous Perceptual Information Interferes with Children's Acquisition of Mathematical Knowledge. Journal of Educational Psychology. 105. 351-363. 10.1037/a0031040.https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263920462_Extraneous_Perceptual_Information_Interferes_With_Children's_Acquisition_of_Mathematical_Knowledge

Kaminski, Jennifer & Sloutsky, Vladimir & Heckler, Andrew. (2008). The Advantage of Abstract Examples in Learning Math. Science (New York, N.Y.). 320. 454-5. 10.1126/science.1154659.  https://www.researchgate.net/publication/5415678_The_Advantage_of_Abstract_Examples_in_Learning_Math

Anderson, J., Reder, L., Simon, H.:  Applications and misapplications of cognitive psychology to mathematics education. Texas Education Review 1(2) 29–49 (2000) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/243616575_Applications_and_Misapplications_of_Cognitive_Psychology_to_Mathematics_Education_1

Select writing by Barbara Oakley

How I rewired my brain to become fluent in math by Barbara Oakley, Nautilus, September 11, 2014 https://nautil.us/how-i-rewired-my-brain-to-become-fluent-in-math-235085/

Make your daughter practice math. She’ll thank you later by Barbara Oakley, The New York Times, August 7, 2018 https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/07/opinion/stem-girls-math-practice.html

Select writing by John MightonScientists Insist That We Need to Teach Math Differently—But is anyone listening? By John Mighton https://cdnprincipals.com/cap-winter-2024/scientists-insist-that-we-need-to-teach-math-differently-but-is-anyone-listening/

Using evidence to close the achievement gap in math by John Mighton.  Chapter 14 in Danesi, Marcel. (2019). Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Math Cognition. 10.1007/978-3-030-22537-7.  https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-22537-7

Mighton, John. (2013). For the Love of Math. Scientific American Mind. 24. 60-67. 10.1038/scientificamericanmind0913-60. https://static.sched.com/hosted_files/nctca2021/70/PDFScientificAmerican%20Miind%20-%20John%20Mighton.pdf

Mighton, John. (2014). JUMP Math: Multiplying Potential. Notices of the American Mathematical Society. 61. 144. 10.1090/noti1077. https://www.ams.org/notices/201402/rnoti-p144.pdf