Groups make math class more woman-friendly.

Dr. Susan Talarico learned math just fine in traditional classrooms: rows of desks with a lecturer up front. Having switched from math education into theoretical math for her PhD, she started teaching the way she'd been taught. That worked for very few of her students, she said at the Wisconsin Women in Higher Education Leadership (WWHEL) conference in October 2004.

Some students in an introductory lecture course get it. They sit in the front row, eager to learn. Others, mostly women, sit farther back with eyes glazed over. They may be taking the course for a third or fourth time, having put it off until the last semester--the final hurdle before graduation.

Math anxiety spirals and grows. As an assistant professor of mathematics at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Dr. Talarico sees many women whose past bad experiences convinced them that they can't do math.

Research shows girls and boys in grades 6 to 12 share a belief that boys are more likely to succeed in math. That belief increases from 6th grade through high school. Over the same period girls, more influenced by what others think about them, have less and less trust they can succeed in math.

"Women's success in math classrooms can be greatly influenced by an environment that fosters self-confidence," she said. Passionate about issues of teaching and gender, she's shifted focus back from differential equations to finding teaching methods that work. Participatory problem-solving is the key.

Building women's confidence

Mathematics is traditionally a solitary discipline. Perhaps that's one reason the field has so few women. Women find support, strength and empowerment in talking to one another.