Math, And Other Surprising Facts About

Learning at TEDxStanford (Transcript)

Hello. So I’m here to tell you that what you have believed

about your own potential has changed what you have learned,

and continues to do that, continues to change your learning,

and your experiences.

So, how many people here — let’s get a show of hands — have

ever been given the idea that they’re not a math person, or that

they can’t go onto the next level of math, they haven’t got the

brains for it? Let’s see a show of hands. So, quite a few of us.

And I’m here to tell you that idea is completely wrong, it is

disproven by the brain science. But it is fueled by a single myth

that’s out there in our society that’s very strong and very

dangerous. And the myth is that there’s such a thing as a math

brain, that you’re born with one, or you’re not. We don’t

believe this about other subjects. We don’t think we’re born

with a history brain, or a physics brain. We think you have to

learn those. But with math, people, students believe it,

teachers believe it, parents believe it.

我在这里告诉你，这个观念完全错误，它被大脑科学证伪了。但它被一个在我
们社会中非常强大而危险的神话所推动。这个神话是，有一种数学大脑，你要
么天生具备，要么没有。对于其他学科，我们并不相信这一点。我们不认为我
们天生就有历史大脑或物理大脑。我们认为你必须学习这些知识。但是对于数
学，人们，学生相信它，老师相信它，父母相信它。

And until we change that single myth we will continue to have

widespread underachievement in this country. Carol Dweck‘s

research on mindset has shown us that if you believe in your

unlimited potential you will achieve at higher levels in maths,

and in life. And an incredible study on mistakes show this very

strongly.

直到我们改变这个单一的神话，我们在这个国家将继续普遍存在成绩不佳的情
况。卡罗尔·德韦克（Carol Dweck）关于心态的研究告诉我们，如果你相信自
己有无限的潜力，你将在数学和生活中取得更高的成就水平。一项关于错误的
令人难以置信的研究也非常明显地表明了这一点。

So Jason Moser and his colleagues actually found from MRI

scans that your brain grows when you make a mistake in

maths. Fantastic. When you make a mistake, synapses fire in

the brain. And in fact, in their MRI scans they found that when

people made a mistake synapses fired. When they got work

correct less synapses fired. So making mistakes is really good.

And we want students to know this.

所以，杰森·莫瑟（Jason Moser）及其同事实际上从 MRI 扫描中发现，当你在
数学中犯错时，你的大脑会增长。太棒了。当你犯错时，大脑中的突触会发射。
事实上，在他们的 MRI 扫描中，他们发现当人们犯错时，突触会发射。当他们
做对时，突触发射较少。所以犯错误是非常好的。我们希望学生知道这一点。

But they found something else that was pretty incredible. This

image shows you the voltage maps of people’s brains. And

what you can see here is that people with a growth mindset,

who believe that they had unlimited potential, they could learn

anything, when they made a stake, their brains grew more

than the people who didn’t believe that they could learn

anything. So this shows us something that brain scientists

have known for a long time: That our cognition, and what we

learn is linked to our beliefs, and to our feelings.

但他们还发现了另一件非常不可思议的事情。这幅图显示了人们大脑的电压图。
你可以看到，具有成长心态的人，他们相信自己有无限的潜力，可以学到任何
东西，当他们犯错时，他们的大脑比那些不相信自己可以学到任何东西的人的
大脑更发育。所以这向我们展示了大脑科学家长期以来已知的一件事情：我们
的认知和我们学到的东西与我们的信念和我们的感觉有关。

And this is important for all of us not just kids in math

classrooms. If you go into a difficult situation, or a challenging

situation, and you think to yourself: “I can do this. I’m going

do it.” And you mess up or fail, your brain will grow more, and
react differently than if you go into that situation thinking: “I

don’t think I can do this.”

这对我们所有人都很重要，不仅仅是数学课堂里的孩子。如果你进入一个困难
的情境或具有挑战性的情境，并且对自己说：“我能做到。我会做到。”然后
你搞砸了或者失败了，你的大脑会更加成长，并且会做出与如果你进入那种情
境时认为：“我不认为我能做到这一点。”完全不同的反应。

So it’s really important that we change the messages kids get

in classrooms. We know that anybody can grow their brain,

and brains are so plastic to learn any level of maths. We have

to get this out to kids. They have to know that mistakes are

really good.

因此，我们改变孩子在课堂上接收到的信息非常重要。我们知道任何人都可以
培养自己的大脑，大脑对于学习任何水平的数学都是非常具有可塑性的。我们
必须让孩子们知道这一点。他们必须知道犯错是非常好的。

But maths classrooms have to change in a lot of ways. It’s not

just about changing messages for kids. We have to

fundamentally change what happens in classrooms. And we

want kids to have a growth mindset, to believe that they can

grow, and learn anything. But it’s very difficult to have a

growth mindset in maths. If you’re constantly given short,

closed questions that you get right or wrong, those questions

themselves transmit fixed messages about math, that you can

do it or you can’t. So we have to open up maths questions so

that there’s space inside them for learning.

但是数学课堂在很多方面都必须改变。这不仅仅是为孩子改变信息。我们必须
从根本上改变课堂上发生的事情。我们希望孩子们拥有一种成长型心态，相信
他们可以成长，可以学到任何东西。但是在数学中拥有成长型心态是非常困难
的。如果你不断地被给予简短、封闭的问题，你会做对或者做错，那些问题本
身就会传递关于数学的固定信息，即你能做到或者你不能做到。因此，我们必
须打开数学问题，以便其中有学习的空间。

And I want to give you an example. We’re actually going to ask

you to think about some maths with me. So this is a fairly

typical problem, it’s given out in schools. And I want you to

think about it a bit differently. So we have three cases of

squares. In case 2 there’s more squares than in case 1, and in

case 3 there’s even more. And often this is given out with the

question: “How many squares would there be in case 100, or

case n?”

我想给你举个例子。实际上，我们要求你和我一起考虑一些数学问题。这是一
个相当典型的问题，在学校里会分发。我想让你以稍微不同的方式思考一下。
所以我们有三种情况的正方形。在第 2 种情况中，方块比第 1 种情况中的更多，

在第 3 种情况中甚至更多。通常情况下，这个问题是这样提出的：“在第 100

种情况中，或者第 n 种情况中，会有多少个方块？”

But I want you to think of a different question now. I want you

to think without any numbers at all, or without any algebra. I

want you to think entirely visually, and I want you to think

about where do you see the extra squares? If there are more

squares in case 2 than case 1, where are they?

现在我想让你考虑一个不同的问题。我想让你完全不用任何数字，或者不用任
何代数。我想让你完全从视觉的角度思考，我想让你思考额外的方块在哪里？
如果在第 2 种情况中比第 1 种情况中有更多的方块，那么它们在哪里？
So if we were in a classroom, I’d give you a long time to think

about this. But in the interest of time, I’m going to show you

some different ways people think about this, and I’ve given

this problem to many different people, and I think it was my

undergrads at Stanford who said to me — or one of them said

to me: “Oh, I see it like raindrops. Where raindrops come

down on the top. So it’s like an outer layer, that grows new

each time.”

如果我们在教室里，我会给你很长时间去思考这个问题。但出于时间考虑，我
打算向你展示一些人们思考这个问题的不同方式，我把这个问题给了许多不同
的人，我想是我在斯坦福的本科生中有人对我说——或者其中有人对我说：
“哦，我把它看作是雨滴。就像雨滴落在顶部一样。所以它就像是一个外层，
每次都会新生长。”

It was also my undergrads who said: “Oh no, I see it more like

a bowling alley. You get an extra row, like a row of skittles that

comes in at the bottom.” A very different way of seeing the

growth.
还有我的本科生们说：“哦不，我觉得它更像是一个保龄球馆。你会得到一个
额外的行，就像是一排保龄球在底部进来一样。”这是一种非常不同的看待增
长的方式。

It was a teacher, I remember, who said to me it was like a

volcano: “The center goes up, and then the lava comes out.”

There was another teacher who said: “Oh no, it’s like the

parting of the Red Sea. The shape separates, and there’s a

duplication with an extra center.”

还有一位老师对我说，这就像一座火山：“中心上升，然后熔岩喷发出来。”
还有另一位老师说：“哦不，这就像红海分开一样。形状分开，有一个额外的
中心。”

I remember this was — sorry, this one as well. Some people see

it as triangles. They see the outside growing as an outside

triangle. And then there was a teacher in New Mexico who said

to me: “Oh it’s like Wyane’s World, Stairway to Heaven, access

denied.”

我还记得这个——抱歉，还有这一个。有些人把它看作是三角形。他们认为外
部会像外三角形一样增长。然后在新墨西哥州有一位老师对我说：“哦，这就
像《韦恩的世界》，通往天堂的阶梯，无法进入。”
And then we have this way of seeing it. If you move the

squares, which you always can, and you rearrange the shape a

bit, you’ll see that it actually grows as squares.

然后我们有另一种看待它的方式。如果你移动方块，你总是可以的，稍微重新
排列一下形状，你会发现它实际上是以方块的形式增长的。

So, this is what I want to illustrate with this question: “When

it’s given out in maths classrooms, and this isn’t the worst of

questions, it’s given out with a question of: “How many?” and

kids count. So they’ll say: “In the first case there’s 4. In the

second there’s 9.” They might stare at that column of numbers

for a long time and say: “If you add one to the case number

each time and square it, then you get the total number of

squares.”

所以，这是我想通过这个问题说明的：在数学课堂上给出这个问题时，这还不
是最糟糕的问题，它通常是与“多少？”的问题一起给出的，学生们会数数。
所以他们会说：“在第一种情况下有 4 个。在第二种情况下有 9 个。” 他们可
能会长时间地盯着那一列数字，然后说：“如果每次给出的情况数增加一，并
将其平方，那么你就会得到方块的总数。”

But when we give it to students, and high school teachers, and

I’ll say to them when they’ve done this: “So why is that
squared you think? Why do you see that squared function?”

They’ll say: “No idea.”

但是当我们把它给学生和高中老师时，我会对他们说：“你认为为什么是平方
的？你为什么看到这个平方函数？” 他们会说：“我不知道。”

So this is why it’s squared. The function grows as a square.

You see that squaring in the algebraic representation. So when

we give these problems to students we give them the visual

question. We ask them: “How they see it?” They have these

rich discussions, and they also reach deeper understandings

about a really important part of mathematics.

所以这就是为什么是平方的原因。这个函数像一个正方形一样增长。你可以在代数表示中
看到这个平方。所以当我们把这些问题给学生时，我们给他们提供视觉问题。我们问他们：
“他们是如何看待这个问题的？”他们进行了丰富的讨论，也对数学中一个非常重要的部
分达到了更深层次的理解。

So we actually need a revolution in maths classrooms. We

need to change a lot of things. And part of the reason we need

to change so much is because research on maths teaching and

learning is not getting into schools and classrooms. And I’m

going to give you a stunning example now.

所以实际上我们需要在数学课堂上进行一场革命。我们需要改变很多东西。我
们需要改变这么多的原因之一是因为关于数学教学和学习的研究并没有进入学
校和教室。现在我将给你一个惊人的例子。

So this is really interesting. When we calculate — even when

adults calculate, where a brain area that sees fingers is lighting

up, we’re not using fingers, but that brain area that sees

fingers lights up. So there’s a brain area when we use fingers,

and there’s a brain area when we see fingers. And it turns out

that seeing fingers is really important for the brain. And in

fact, finger perception is — scientists test for finger perception

by asking them to put their hands under a table — they can’t

see them touching a finger, and then seeing if you know which

finger has been touched.

这确实很有趣。当我们计算时——甚至是成年人计算时，一个看到手指的大脑
区域会被激活，虽然我们并没有使用手指，但是那个看到手指的大脑区域会被
激活。所以当我们使用手指时有一个大脑区域，当我们看到手指时也有一个大
脑区域。事实证明，看到手指对大脑非常重要。实际上，科学家们通过要求被
试将手放在桌子下面——他们看不见自己触摸手指，然后观察他们是否知道哪
个手指被触摸来测试手指知觉。

The amount of university students who have good finger

perception predicts their calculation scores. And the amount

of finger perception grade 1 students have is a better

prediction of maths achievement in grade 2 than test scores. It

is that important.
大学生具有良好手指知觉的数量预测了他们的计算成绩。而一年级学生具有的
手指知觉量对二年级数学成绩的预测比测试成绩更准确。它是如此重要。

But what happens in schools and classrooms? Students are

told they’re not allowed to use their fingers. They’re told it’s

babyish. They’re made to feel bad about it. When we stop

children learning numbers through fingers, it’s akin to halting

their numerical development. And scientists have known this

for a long time. And the neuroscientists conclude that fingers

should be used for students learning number and arithmetic.

If we haven’t published — we published this in a paper in the

Atlantic last week. I don’t know any educator who knew this.

This is causing a huge ripple through the education

community.

但在学校和课堂上会发生什么呢？学生被告知他们不允许使用手指。他们被告
知这是幼稚的。他们被弄得感觉很糟糕。当我们阻止孩子们通过手指学习数字
时，这就像阻止了他们的数字发展。科学家们早就知道这一点。神经科学家得
出的结论是，学生在学习数字和算术时应该使用手指。如果我们还没有发表—
—我们上周在《大西洋月刊》发表了一篇论文。我不知道有哪位教育工作者知
道这一点。这在教育界引起了巨大的轰动。

So there’s lots of other research that’s not known by teachers

and schools. We also know that when you perform a

calculation the brain is involved in a complex and dynamic

communication between different areas of the brain, including

the visual cortex. Yet, maths classrooms are not visual, they’re

numerical and abstract.

所以还有很多其他的研究，教师和学校并不知道。我们也知道，当你进行计算
时，大脑会涉及到大脑不同区域之间复杂而动态的交流，包括视觉皮层。然而，
数学课堂并不是视觉化的，它们是数值和抽象的。

So I want to show you now what happened when we brought

81 students onto campus last summer, and we taught them

differently. So we taught them about the brain growing. We

taught them about mindset and mistakes. But we also taught

them creative, visual, beautiful maths. And they came in for 18

lessons with us. Before they came to us they had taken a

district standardized test. We gave them the same test at the

end of our 18 lessons, and they improved by an average of

50%.

所以我现在想向你展示的是，当我们去年夏天把 81 名学生带到校园，并且以不
同的方式教他们时发生了什么。我们教给他们有关大脑成长的知识。我们教给
他们关于心态和错误的知识。但我们也教给他们创造性的、视觉化的、美丽的
数学。他们来到我们这里上了 18 节课。在他们来到我们这里之前，他们已经参

加了地区标准化考试。我们在我们的 18 节课结束时给他们同样的测试，他们的

平均分提高了 50%。

Eighty one students, from a range of achievement levels, told

us on the first day: “I’m not a math person.” They could name

the one person in their class who was a math person. We

changed their beliefs. And this is a clip from a longer music

video that we made of the kids.

81 名学生来自不同的成就水平，在第一天告诉我们：“我不是数学高手。” 他们能够说出
班上那个数学高手的名字。我们改变了他们的信念。以下是我们制作的孩子们的长音乐视
频中的一部分片段。

[Video clip:

But we keep talking

Can’t stop, won’t stop solving

It’s like something is growing

In our minds every time we try again.

‘Cause the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate.

We will make mistakes, stakes, stakes, stakes, stakes.

We’re just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake.

Shake it off! Shake it off!

Our method’s gonna break, break, break, break, break.

It’s not a piece of cake, cake, cake, cake, cake.

We’re just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake.

Shake it off! Shake it off!

We represent things visually,

Present them to our class clearly

So that they can see mmm

So that they can see mmm

We know our brains can grow

Who cases how fast we go?

Understanding’s what we show mmm

Understanding’s what we show mmm

So we keep trying

Synapses are firing

This problem’s so exciting

It’s so cool that I want to go and show the world!

但我们不停地谈论 停不下来，也不会停止解决问题 就像某种东西正在成长 每次我们再次

尝试时，都在我们的头脑中。 因为讨厌者会讨厌，讨厌，讨厌，讨厌，讨厌。 我们会犯错，
错，错，错，错。 我们只会摇摆，摇摆，摇摆，摇摆，摇摆。 摇掉它！摇掉它！ 我们的
方法会破坏，破坏，破坏，破坏，破坏。 这不是一块蛋糕，蛋糕，蛋糕，蛋糕，蛋糕。 我
们只会摇摆，摇摆，摇摆，摇摆，摇摆。 摇掉它！摇掉它！ 我们以视觉方式代表事物，
清晰地向我们的班级展示 这样他们可以看到嗯 这样他们可以看到嗯 我们知道我们的大脑
可以成长 谁在乎我们走得有多快？ 理解是我们展示的东西 嗯 理解是我们展示的东西 嗯 所
以我们继续尝试 突触正在发射 这个问题如此令人兴奋 这太酷了，我想去向世界展示！

 [Video ends]

So we need to get research out to teachers. We need a

revolution in maths teaching. And if you don’t believe me,

come listen to this kid. He’s a middle schooler, and we had

worked with his teachers to shift from worksheet math to open

math with mindset messages. This is him reflecting on that

shift.

[Video clip: “Math class last year was notes, and just

handouts, and your own little box — you were just boxed in.

You were like by yourself, it was every man for themselves.

But now this year is just open. We’re a whole big — it’s like a

city — we’re all working together to create this new beautiful

world. I think the challenges, and the future that lies ahead

for me — if I keep on pushing, if I keep on doing this someday

I’m going to make it.” – [Video ends]

我们需要把研究传达给教师。我们需要一场数学教学的革命。如果你不相信我，
就来听听这个孩子的话。他是一个中学生，我们与他的老师合作，从填空数学
转变为带有心态信息的开放数学。这是他对这种转变的反思。 [视频片段：
“去年的数学课是记笔记，只是发放资料，自己待在一个小盒子里——你就像
被圈在里面一样。你只是独自一人，每个人都只为自己而战。但今年现在是开
放的。我们是一个整体——就像一个城市——我们都在一起努力创造这个新的
美丽世界。我觉得对我来说面临的挑战和未来——如果我继续努力，如果我继
续这样做，总有一天我会成功。”–【视频结束】

We have focused for so long in education, in maths education,

on the right way to teach a fraction, on the standards we use in

classrooms which are argued about all the time, and we’ve

completely ignored the beliefs students hold about their own

potential. And only now is the full extent of the need to attend

to that coming to light. We all have to believe in ourselves to

unlock our unlimited potential.

在教育，尤其是数学教育中，我们长期以来一直专注于如何正确地教授分数，
关于我们在课堂上使用的标准进行了无休止的争论，但我们完全忽视了学生对
自己潜力的信念。直到现在，我们才逐渐意识到，我们必须全面关注这一点。
我们所有人都必须相信自己，才能释放我们无限的潜力。

Thank you.
Want a summary of this talk? Here it is.

SUMMARY:

Jo Boaler’s TEDx Talk, titled “How You Can Be Good At

Math, And Other Surprising Facts About

Learning,” challenges prevailing misconceptions about math

and learning. Boaler argues that the belief in a “math brain” is

a dangerous myth that hinders learning. She highlights key

points from her talk:

1. The Myth of the Math Brain: Boaler asserts that the

idea of a “math brain,” implying that one is born with an

innate ability for math, is false and unsupported by brain

science. This myth perpetuates a fixed mindset about math

abilities.

2. Mindset Matters: Carol Dweck’s research on mindset

demonstrates that believing in one’s unlimited potential leads

to higher achievement in math and life. Boaler emphasizes

that mistakes are valuable for learning and can stimulate brain

growth.
3. Visual Mathematics: Boaler advocates for a shift in math

education towards visual and creative approaches. She

presents an example where students are encouraged to think

visually about math problems, fostering deeper understanding

and discussions.

4. The Importance of Finger Perception: Boaler

discusses the significance of finger perception in math

learning, which is often discouraged in schools. Research

shows that good finger perception predicts math achievement,

yet students are made to feel that it’s “babyish.”

5. Changing Math Classrooms: Boaler calls for a

revolution in math classrooms, emphasizing that research on

effective math teaching and learning needs to reach educators.

She shares a successful case where students improved their

math skills by 50% after being taught with a growth mindset

and creative, visual math techniques.

6. Empowering Students: Boaler shares the perspective of

a middle school student who describes the shift from a rigid

math environment to an open, collaborative one. The student

expresses newfound confidence in his math abilities and a

sense of working together to create a better future.

7. Belief in Unlimited Potential: Boaler concludes by

emphasizing the importance of believing in one’s potential.

She suggests that focusing solely on teaching methods or

standards neglects the critical factor of students’ self-belief in

their abilities.

In her TEDx Talk, Jo Boaler calls for a transformation in math

education, emphasizing the need to break free from the myth

of the “math brain” and promote a growth mindset among

students. By embracing visual, creative, and collaborative

approaches to learning, Boaler believes that all students can

unlock their unlimited potential in math and beyond.

在她的 TEDx 演讲中，乔·博勒呼吁改革数学教育，强调需要摆脱“数学大脑”

这个神话，并在学生中推广成长心态。通过接受视觉化、创造性和合作的学习
方法，博勒相信所有学生都可以释放他们在数学及其他领域的无限潜力。

1. 数学大脑的神话：博勒断言，“数学大脑”的观念，暗示一个人天生就
具有数学的天赋，是错误的，并得不到大脑科学的支持。这个神话使人
们对数学能力产生了固定的心态。
2. 心态至关重要：卡罗尔·德韦克关于心态的研究表明，相信自己有无限潜
力会导致更高的数学成就和生活成就。博勒强调，犯错对于学习是有价
值的，可以促进大脑的成长。
 3. 视觉数学：博勒主张将数学教育转向视觉和创造性的方法。她提供了一
个例子，鼓励学生以视觉方式思考数学问题，促进更深入的理解和讨论。
4. 手指感知的重要性：博勒讨论了手指感知在数学学习中的重要性，但这
在学校中经常受到限制。研究显示，良好的手指感知能够预测数学成就，
但学生却被认为这是“幼稚”的。
5. 改变数学课堂：博勒呼吁数学课堂进行改革，强调有效数学教学和学习
的研究需要传达给教育工作者。她分享了一个成功的案例，其中学生在
接受成长心态和创造性、视觉数学技巧的教导后，数学能力提高了
50%。

6. 激励学生：博勒分享了一个中学生的观点，描述了从严格的数学环境转
变为开放、协作的环境。学生表达了对自己数学能力的新信心，以及一
种共同努力创造更美好未来的感觉。
7. 对无限潜力的信仰：博勒强调了相信自己潜力的重要性。她建议，仅关
注教学方法或标准，忽视了学生对自己能力的自信这一关键因素。

总的来说，在她的演讲中，乔·博勒呼吁改变数学教育，强调需要摆脱“数学大
脑”的神话，并促进学生的成长心态。通过接受视觉化、创造性和合作的学习
方法，博勒相信所有学生都可以在数学及其他领域释放他们的无限潜力。

https://singjupost.com/jo-boaler-how-you-can-be-good-at-math-and-other-surprising-facts-about-
learning-at-tedxstanford-transcript/?singlepage=1