THE 3131 MATH PHILOSOPHY
THREE PILLARS
To be as effective as possible, 3131 Math’s curriculum is backed by extensive research. Before building the curriculum, each of our founders wrote a literature review on a different aspect of math anxiety to find its root causes and the best ways to fight it. From that research, we found that math anxiety is most prevalent in low opportunity students and that the best ways to fight math anxiety are through growth mindset training and project-based learning. So, accessibility, growth mindset training, and project-based learning form the three pillars of our curriculum.
SHIFTING ATTITUDES
The goal of our curriculum is to shift our students’ attitude toward math. 3131 Math is not a tutoring service--we do not teach our students any new topics or tutor them on skills they may have learned. Instead, we do hands-on, collaborative activities that build on topics they have previously learned in school. By doing this, we show them ways that math can be fun and have applications beyond boring problem sets so they they associate positive feelings toward math. Additionally, we ensure that our curriculum and teachings prioritize growth mindset training to give the students confidence that they can improve on their skills in math.
LONG TERM SUCCESS
By prioritizing our students' general relationship with math over their skills in math topics, we ensure that they will have long-term motivation to succeed in math, not just short-term success. So many programs out there simply tutor students on individual topics so they will succeed on their next exam, but do not give students the tools to succeed in the future. By making our students feel positively about math and see how they can use growth mindset training to improve on their skills, they will gain the skills and motivation to work hard and succeed later on.