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Message: <blockquote data-quote="orbitalfreak" data-source="post: 2697839" data-attributes="member: 1669">One method I've seen in helping students understand Math (and other subjects) is to tie it in with the real world.  A purely theoretical approach to a subject is useless except to provide the world with more academically-inclined people who become teachers to teach a purely theoretical approach to their subject.  Having worked as a tutor and a teacher, I based my instruction around "Why do we need to know this?"  Real-world examples of people who use these problems help, as well as relating things significant to the students; for example, I would use dice rolls when teaching probability to a bunch of D&D'ers, but sports statistics or business-related information for a generic low-level college math course.I've had a very large number of students come to me to say "Thanks, I really understood it when you said it like that," and had quite a few mention that they'd never encountered someone able to tie the teachings in to something other than intangible theoretical mumbo-jumbo.The theory-for-theory's-sake is what kept me from going any further than a year of grad school in the pursuit of mathematics; I just couldn't wrap my mind around what was happening, why it was happening, and what this knowledge was good for.</blockquote>