ShiftED Podcast #73 In Conversation with Dr Laura Tuohilampi: Seriously Fun Math for Humans

Most people quietly believe they’re “not a math person,” yet they plan trips, compare prices, rearrange furniture, and decode ads with sharp logic every week. We pull that thread with Dr. Laura Tuohilampi from The University of New South Wales to ask why everyday confidence evaporates at the classroom door—and how to stitch it back together.We talk about the moments that shape a learner’s identity, from being punished for answering “too fast” to absorbing the myth that perfection equals understanding. Laura makes a compelling case that the bottleneck isn’t just content knowledge; it’s the teacher’s relationship with math. When educators feel safe to be curious, make mistakes, and co-discover strategies, students mirror that mindset. We explore simple, powerful practices that ground procedures in meaning: have kids build rectangles with 20 blocks and watch area and multiplication emerge; use estimation and multiple methods as first-class tools; value reasoning as much as answers.The conversation widens to what math should do for humans now. If calculators and AI handle routine computation, we should center data literacy, algorithmic thinking, uncertainty, and ethics. That means reading statistics in political messaging, spotting selective graphs, and understanding how models can encode bias. We also dive into coding and computational thinking not as a separate silo, but as part of a broader mathematical lens on systems, patterns, and decisions.AI shows up as a partner, not a proxy. Laura’s team designs tools that help teachers reflect on trade-offs, avoid bias, and choose strategies with clearer foresight. For students, we introduce vertical contextualization—asking AI to imagine where a skill will matter decades from now—so practice has real purpose. The result is a practical roadmap to turn anxiety into agency and make math feel like what it truly is: a way to understand and shape the world.If this resonates, follow the show, share it with a colleague who teaches maths, and leave a review telling us where you use maths most in your week.