Episode 088: Math Anxiety and ”Mathletes”: A Conversation with Dr. Val Zonnefeld

This week, we are joined with our good friend and colleague, Dr. Val Zonnefeld, who teaches in the Dordt University Department of Mathematics. Her expertise is in math education, and she teaches multiple courses for the future teachers in our program–both math content, and math methods. We start this episode by sharing our own “math stories”: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Val has extensive knowledge from the research in math education as well as a ton of practical experience from her years teaching math in middle school, high school, and college classrooms. Throughout our conversation, Val shares lots of wisdom and ideas for teachers and parents alike in helping the kids in their lives wherever they are with mathematics–whether they feel the math anxiety (which is very real!) or if they are high-achieving “mathletes.” We hope this episode is an encouragement for you!

• In the episode, Val mentions the book Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics, by Peter Liljedahl and recommends this one for teachers. You can find it on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/Building-Thinking-Classrooms-Mathematics-Grades/dp/1544374836 
• Dave also brings up a fascinating tool called WolframAlpha, which is an A.I. computational knowledge engine. It is worth checking this one out, and you can access it for free here: https://www.wolframalpha.com/