Mathematics teachers work hard to appease students’ math anxiety (article in English). Students might usually be more anxious towards mathematics compared to other subjects, probably because it is a new language to learn that is not instantly accessible. Math anxiety is paradoxical because it makes students avoid practicing maths, and maths, like any foreign language, needs practice to get better. When students are anxious about math and avoid it, they also cannot put into test their belief that math is scary, because they do not expose themselves to mathematics long enough to get used to it. 

The best way of fighting one’s own fear is to confront it long enough to see that what is being feared (e.g.: failure to solve a math problem) does not happen. Therefore, teacher Sónia chose to ask her students to confront mathematics at their own pace, being their online tutor through the platform Khan Academy (KA).

Sónia Luísa Silva from the school “Escola Básica e Secundária Doutor Ângelo Augusto da Silva” in Funchal uses Khan Academy to prepare pupils for math equations. While students can be discouraged to ask the teacher to repeat their explanation a third or fourth time in the classroom, through this tool they can pause and rewind a video. It is also more interactive than learning from a textbook because it is auditory and visual at the same time.

There are several sequences of content in the platform and each teacher can choose and set a personalized sequence of assignments for each student. This allows students to be completely autonomous in their work. Students can monitor their own progress through an easy-to-understand and motivating interface. After each question, the students get an automatic feedback that motivates them to continue working or to repeat the exercise after conferring the explanation. 

Teacher Sónia uses KA for classes that take 90 minutes weekly. This scenario illustrates the beginning chapter of equations in the curriculum. However, she continues to use KA throughout the schoolyear. Using KA both helps to address the prerequisites of the beginning of a chapter and in the end to consolidate the subject. 

She creates a KA virtual class and adds each student in (tutorial in English). Each student is familiar with accessing the tutors’ assignments. By using the how-to guides (in English) the teacher can learn how to manage and have the best results with the assignments on the platform. 

At the beginning of the lesson, the teacher hands out a guide card (Figure 1), prepared in a simple text editor including a table, to each student, with the assigned proposals. These assignments were previously scheduled in Khan Academy by Sónia and have a deadline. 

After completing a set of exercises, the students get a summary with the description of their improvement and results on that subject. In turn, the teacher has access to data showing each student’s progress, with several statistics. This data helps her to plan and adapt future activities to each student’s learning path, by redoing the explanation of the content (e.g., watching videos with explanations in the classroom or advancing towards a new topic). Students can consult articles with the explanation or even see the solution for each activity, step by step, returning to the content topic until they obtain the desired score.

Figure 1 Example of a study guide card with the assigned proposals

Students have immediate feedback of the result of each activity, and after completing a set of activities, they gain points that give them the ability to unlock avatars and earn medals based on their achievements (commitment, perseverance, speed, evolution, etc. (Figure 2). 

Figure 2 KA adds a degree of gamification thanks to avatars and earning points after each activity

Teacher Sónia did not have a computer for each student. Therefore, she split students into 2 groups and rotated their task from Khan Academy to problem-solving in their notebook and other material (student’s book, activity book and/or worksheets) after 45 minutes or vice versa (Figure 3).

Figure 3 Classroom view of student task rotation

If students are unable to complete their activities during the lesson, they can do so at their own pace at home. The teacher encourages students to use KA in post-school hours, to complete tasks or practice specific class concepts. This makes time in class to address each student and clarify doubts, to provide feedback, and ask guiding and probing questions to help students to reflect.

She also gets the help of other students. The ones that already demonstrate that they master the content will help their peers tackle difficulties with the activity. This encourages peer learning, which fosters confidence building in addressing challenges. 
Another advantage of self-paced learning is that teachers can easily have groups including students with special educational needs, foreign students and students at an advanced level to work simultaneously.

The students take the lead in this process as it is not imposed by the teacher. This is encouraged because it is good for students to learn how to help their peers and become more independent. Moreover, students seem to learn more effectively when they try to ‘teach’ their peers since this compels them to make sense out of specific math concepts.

After using KA, the students that are usually afraid of making mistakes, now feel more confident in mathematics. They get exposed to a set of activities that can make them feel free to make multiple attempts. On the other hand, students who better master the topic can receive further tasks from the teacher.

During class, the teacher is always around, guiding students through their doubts and encouraging them to carry out more activities. This monitoring on the part of the teacher involves exploring further content topics, in addition to the current topics, for example, prior knowledge from previous school years. 

Figure 4 Example of parent view of student progress report

Sonia also implemented a version of this scenario during the COVID-19 crisis on a full-online setting. She easily adapted it successfully during remote teaching since her students were already familiar with the platform. They continued to receive the learning sequence (study guides), to take part in videoconferencing and to participate in other types of communication managed by Classroom, which was the platform chosen by the school to guide students (video in English).

Even if students may take a little bit of time to get familiar with the platform (tutorial in English), they will make the most of it in the short-term. KA adapted and highly supported remote learning by offering schedules for students to study and online help (English).

Several colleagues of Sónia used KA in their classes as well. They assigned tasks to their students, both for knowledge acquisition and autonomous practice. They used KA in regular classes or in support groups for students. 

Parents were informed that they can create a parental account on KA and receive a weekly email reminder to log on the platform and access their children’s progress report. (guides and resources for parents).

At any time, they can log into their account and visualise their children’s progress or look up for content. With the help of tutorials designed for parents, they can also perform the tasks in parallel with their children. Of course, the children should be asked for consent as it is important that they feel comfortable about this and do not feel they are under surveillance. 

It should also be made clear to parents that this is meant to monitor their children and to help them be more aware of the tasks their children are doing and provide support whenever necessary.

Khan Academy is a great supplement to Sónia’s teaching as she is better able to keep the class interactive and have now more time and energy to support learning. In other words, she recovered the time that would be devoted to the class if she used a more teacher-centered methodology. 

Students found that this was a fun and different experience. They were happy that they were able to work both autonomously and in collaboration with their peers. The activity increased students’ engagement and their academic success and promoted students’ responsibility. As Sónia’s school advocated, it promoted the development of differentiated and flexible learning paths in each student as an individual.

Their students said: “Now I can practice and make mistakes without fear, learning the contents”; “I have better results in my assessments, because I can learn and redo the exercises”; “The platform is very user friendly.” “In KA there are lessons for parents as well as the students, so I’ve learnt at home with my parents”; “The lessons are well structured with a very systematic progression of skills. My tutor provides a clear breakdown of skills. You can try a problem several times giving you confidence to continue.” 

She intends to continue using it in her future classes and in a broader way, apply it to upper primary and lower secondary students (ISCED 1 and 2) that will have access to the tablets and digital manuals, according to the local education department project (Portuguese). This project determines the provision of digital textbooks to all of the students mentioned above who attend public schools in Funchal.