Maths skills – nature or nurture?
Have you ever heard the phrase “I’m just not a maths person”? Chances are, not only have you just heard it, but you might also have said it yourself.
Almost every one of us has. Often as a joke – but also in dead serious manners. Either way, the saying is not entirely uncommon among us, and most of the time, we don’t reflect upon it and its meaning. But the truth is, saying so is wrong. All humans do maths to some extent which means that everyone is a maths person.
“But some people are just naturally good at maths – I’m not one of them”, you might argue, thinking that there must be some sort of genetic advantage for some people’s maths abilities.
At Akribian, we are genuinely convinced that maths abilities are based on nurture and that everybody is a maths person. However, we always have a scientifical angle in what we do. So, what are researchers saying about the topic?
The genetic side of maths skills
Maths abilities are often said to run in families, but why, and if genes affect this, is somewhat harder to examine and prove. However, the complexity hasn’t stopped scientists worldwide from finding an answer to this and how nature affects our maths skills.
The ROBO1-gene
In 2020, new research showed that about one-fifth of maths abilities could be traced back to grey matter volume in the right parietal cortex in the brain. This brain region predicts mathematical test scores in second grade and is influenced by a gene called ROBO1.
In the study, the scientists examined and measured the grey matter in young children that had not yet had any maths training. Based on children’s different variations of the ROBO1-gene, the scientists argue that the genetic variabilities influence whether a child is more skilled in maths.
However, even if the specific ROBO1-gene ruled maths skills, it doesn’t mean that there’s nothing to do if a child finds learning maths hard. Instead, it indicates that it may take a bit more time and effort from parents, schools, and teachers to get that child on the same level as its peers.
Maths genes or reading genes
Another exciting way of looking at the genetic side of maths abilities is by comparing it to literacy abilities. Many of us tend to align ourselves with either numbers or words. We are either a maths person or a reading person.
However, the truth is we might have to ditch this division between the skills. Research shows that half the genes that influence a child’s maths abilities also influence their reading abilities. You can bet that people who are good at reading tend to be pretty good at math and the other way around.
The study that compared literacy skills with maths skills had two different approaches, comparing the similarity of thousands of twins and measuring their DNA. Both methods showed that similar collections of subtle DNA were important for reading and maths.
Even though the goal of this study wasn’t to link these abilities to a specific gene, the result shows that genes affect brain development and function and processes that are important for learning new skills – such as maths or reading.
How inherited genes affect learning abilities
Another way of looking at how maths abilities are ruled by genetics is by examining how learning abilities, in general, are affected by the genes children inherit from their parents. In a study from last year, UCL researchers confirmed that genes a person inherits directly are most likely to contribute to their achievements in education.
However, this is where it gets even more fascinating. The researchers also argue that even though the child only inherits 50% of the genes from one parent, 100% of that parent’s genes still affect the child’s learning abilities. How is this possible? Well, nature (the genes they inherit) and nurture (the environment they grow up in) are very intertwined.
Even though the other half of the genes are not passed on, these genes still affect the parents’ traits, affecting how the parent influences and acts with the child. So, for example, parents with a higher genetic propensity for learning might be more interested in activities involving education, which they want to do together with their children – nurturing this behaviour in them.
This concept of parents’ genes influencing outcomes for their offspring by shaping their environments is called genetic nurture. The UCL researchers found that genetic nurture had about half as much impact on education success as genetic inheritance.
The environmental side of maths skills
As you can see above, nurture seems always to get somewhat involved – even when focusing on how nature and genes affect maths skills. It’s sometimes almost like the “chicken-and-egg” metaphor, where nature and nurture are intertwined so that it is hard to distinguish between them and prove which factor is ruling which.
But this, of course, hasn’t stopped researchers from focusing their studies on how nurture and environment affect our maths skills. One popular way of doing so is by talking about a growth mindset.
The effects of a growth mindset
The saying growth mindset sometimes feels like an overused buzzword, leaning towards the sometimes cheesy expression of “anything you can imagine is real”. But to be honest, there might be more truth to this than we first believe.
Growth mindset has, for example, been researched and shown in the study by researchers at Columbia and Stanford. In this study, the researchers examined math performance in a group of seventh-graders where the researchers applied an incremental theory intervention to some of the students. In short, the incremental theory is the same as a growth mindset – the belief that intelligence is a malleable quality that can increase through efforts.
In other words, some of the students were told that their math skills could grow and improve through effort. They were taught that the brain works like a muscle and get strengthened through practice – meaning that their intelligence can be nurtured and developed. The students in the control group, like their peers, got enriching and learning exercises. But in contrast, they weren’t told about the malleability of their intelligence. As a result, they had more of a fixed mindset than a growth mindset.
The results from the study are super interesting and show that the mathematics grades for the students in the control group had gotten lower. However, the students in the group where the incremental theory had been applied had gotten higher grades in mathematics. How can this be explained, and what is behind these findings?
It is all about nurture, of course! When we believe that our intelligence is mouldable, it feels more natural to put in the effort to gain and activate our intelligence. With a growth mindset, a struggle is not a fixed roadblock – but rather a tiny hill we need to ascend to build skills. Difficulties are experienced as challenges instead of threats.
The difference between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset
A fixed mindset:
- Believe that talent alone creates success.
- Are fearful of making mistakes
- Are reluctant to take on challenges
- Believes that skills and intelligence are written in stone and inherited. You either have them, or you don’t.
A growth mindset:
- Believes that your skills and intelligence can be developed, and extraordinary abilities can be built over time.
- Views mistakes as opportunities to grow and develop
- Are resilient
- Believes that effort creates success
A fixed mindset:
- Believe that talent alone creates success.
- Are fearful of making mistakes
- Are reluctant to take on challenges
- Believes that skills and intelligence are written in stone and inherited. You either have them, or you don’t.
A growth mindset:
- Believes that your skills and intelligence can be developed, and extraordinary abilities can be built over time.
- Views mistakes as opportunities to grow and develop
- Are resilient
- Believes that effort creates success
How to change a fixed mindset to a growth mindset
After reading about this, we understand if you’re asking yourself if it’s possible to change a fixed mindset to a growth mindset. The good news is that the answer is yes – and it can be done by simple means.
The effects of praising students for their intelligence were studied in 400 fifth-grade students. After doing well on a test, half of the students got praised for their intelligence and the other half for their effort. After that, they got to choose from two different tasks: an easier one where they knew they would do well or a more difficult one they understood would challenge their skills and abilities.
The students who had been praised for their intelligence chose the simple task. On the other hand, 90% of the students praised for their effort chose the more complex and challenging one.
One explanation for this is that the students praised for their intelligence had more of a fixed mindset. They wanted to continue to get praised for their brains – that’s why they chose a task where they knew they would do well. On the other hand, the students that got praise for their efforts saw the challenge as an opportunity to grow and improve. The growth mindset made them unafraid to fail and more likely to take on a more demanding challenge.
However, changing a mindset isn’t a one-stop or quick fix. It takes repetition, effort, and practice to change one’s thinking. We have summarized some of the things you can do to start praising children more on their efforts instead of their brains here:
So, what is the conclusion?
To summarize it all, there is no clear conclusion on if maths skills are based on nature or nurture. Different studies give different answers and indications, which means that no one can be sure yet.
Even though we are getting more questions about maths and genetics answered each year, the bigger picture of what affects maths abilities remains unchanged and unanswered. Maths abilities may be connected to genetics, but as studies indicate, it probably just explains a tiny fraction of the ability. And as a matter of fact, only 20% of the maths ability was explained through genetics. It might sound like a lot, but in reality, it leaves us with 80% of the ability still unexplained. Or is it maybe based on nurture?
At Akribian, we firmly believe that maths skills are based on nurture, and therefore can be improved and increased by practice and effort and that everyone is a maths person. Where do you stand?
