Why am I bad at maths?

When CrowdScience listener Israel from Papua New Guinea received a bad grade on a maths test in third grade, he looked around the class and realised that almost all the other students had received a better result. Since then, he has always wondered: why are some people better at maths than others?

And Israel isn’t the only one to think about this: our listeners from all over the world describe their relationships with numbers, which run the full gamut from love to hate.

So are we all in control of our own mathematical fate, or are some people just naturally bad at it? Presenter Anand Jagatia hears about studies of identical and non-identical twins showing how genetics and environment interact to shape our mathematical abilities.

Our numerical abilities are not set in stone. It’s always possible to improve, and getting rid of negative feelings and anxiety around maths could be the key, says psychologist Iro Xenidou-Dervou.

Some countries seem to support children’s maths skills better than others. China and Finland both rank highly in international league tables; education experts in both countries discuss whether there are any keys to a successful mathematics education.

And there is something underlying our ability to do maths in the first place: our number sense. We hear what happens when this number sense does not work as intended – and what can be done about it.

Contributors:
Professor Yulia Kovas – Goldsmiths University of London, UK
Professor Pekka Räsänen – University of Turku, Finland
Assistant Professor Zhenzhen Miao – Jiangxi Normal University, China
Dr Iro Xenidou-Dervou – Loughborough University, UK
Professor Brian Butterworth – University College London, UK

Presented by Anand Jagatia
Produced by Florian Bohr
Editor: Cathy Edwards
Production Co-ordinator: Liz Tuohy
Studio Manager: Jackie Margerum (Photo: Boy scratching head in front of blackboard. Credit: Jose Luis Pelaez Inc/Getty Images)