Page 34 - A Mind For Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science

There’s a winner at Ping-Pong only if the ball is able to go back and forth.

EMBRACE BEFUDDLEMENT!

“Befuddlement is a healthy part of the learning process. When students approach a
problem and don’t know how to do it, they’ll often decide they’re no good at the subject.
Brighter students, in particular, can have difficulty in this way—their breezing through high
school leaves them no reason to think that being confused is normal and necessary. But
the learning process is all about working your way out of confusion. Articulating your
question is 80 percent of the battle. By the time you’ve figured out what’s confusing, you’re
likely to have answered the question yourself!”

—Kenneth R. Leopold, Distinguished Teaching Professor, Department of Chemistry,
University of Minnesota

The bottom line is that problem solving in any discipline often involves an
exchange between the two fundamentally different modes. One mode will

process the information it receives and then send the result back to the other
mode. This volleying of information back and forth as the brain works its way
toward a conscious solution appears essential for understanding and solving all
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but trivial problems and concepts. The ideas presented here are extremely
helpful for understanding learning in math and science. But as you are probably