Skip to content

A MIND FOR NUMBERS

Barbara Oakley

How to Excel in Math and Science (Even if You Flunked Algebra)

This book is intended for college and high school students, to give insights based on neuroscience about how to learn math and science more easily and with less frustration. It features insights from many of the world's leading scientists, mathematicians, and engineers, and from my own decades of teaching in math and science. A MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) through Coursera based on the book is also in development.
Whether you are a college student struggling to fulfill a math requirement or a professional in a field requiring high-level analytic skills, A Mind for Numbers is geared toward anyone who has ever been intimidated by math.

Barbara Oakley, a successful engineering professor who once flunked her way through high school math and science classes, understands this audience well. Offering insights in neuroscience and cognitive psychology, Dr. Oakley teaches us how to fully utilize the right side of the brain (for creative, big-picture thinking), as well as the analytical left side (for problem solving). She addresses common stumbling blocks to approaching math and science, and shows us how to use our personal learning style to its fullest advantage. Barbara Oakley is a professor of engineering at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. She has received many awards for her teaching, including the coveted National Science Foundation New Century Scholar Award. Concerned about the lack of minority representation in engineering classrooms at inner city schools in Pontiac, Michigan, Dr. Oakley introduced teaching methods that launched the school district to the top in math performance on statewide tests. Dr. Oakley's previous books, Evil Genes (Prometheus Books 2008), Cold-Blooded Kindness (Prometheus Books 2011), and Pathological Altruism (Oxford University Press 2011) have been lauded by Joyce Carol Oates, Steven Pinker, and Pulitzer Prize winner Edward O. Wilson.

Oakley's PhD is in the integrative, deeply mathematical discipline of systems engineering, and she is a Fellow of the American Institute of Biological and Medical Engineers. Her research in bioengineering has a special emphasis on neuroscience and cognitive psychology. She also holds a Master of Science in electrical and computer engineering.
Available products
Book

Published 2014-07-31 by Tarcher

Book

Published 2014-07-31 by Tarcher

Comments

Chinese (complex): Ecus ; Korean: Sinbad ; Portuguese (Brazil): Infopress ; Turkish: Pegasus

Barbara Oakley's life, and her most recent book, offer inspiration...A Mind for Numbers amasses both cognitive and time-management techniques for efficiently retaining difficult material, distinguishing time-wasters from strategies that truly encode knowledge. Read more...

A wonderful book! How do you come to love math and science, and how do you come to learn math and science? Read A Mind for Numbers. Barbara Oakley is the magician who will help you do both.

feature on “Learning How to Learn” MOOC: An Engineering Professor Uses Latest Theories to Offer New Learning Practices Read more...

MASSIVE OPEN ONLINE COURSE: Barbara Oakley has launched a massive open online course (MOOC) that has so far driven more than 1,000 preorders. The course is called LEARNING HOW TO LEARN and includes A Mind for Numbers as recommended reading. There are currently 82,500 people signed up for the course, and they anticipate topping 100K before the course starts on Aug 1. Barbara refers students to A Mind for Numbers throughout the course – and will also re-run her MOOC every few months, which should help maintain steady sales for this book. Read more...

A good teacher will leave you educated. But a great teacher will leave you curious. Well, Barbara Oakley is a great teacher. Not only does she have a mind for numbers, she has a way with words, and she makes every one of them count.

An ingeniously accessible introduction to the science of human cognition—along with practical advice on how to think better.

A Mind For Numbers: An Interview With Barbara Oakley Read more...

In my book The Math Instinct, I described how we have known since the early 1990s that all ordinary people can do mathematics, and in The Math Gene, I explained why the capacity for mathematical thinking is both a natural consequence of evolution and yet requires effort to unleash it. What I did not do is show how to tap in to that innate ability. Professor Oakley does just that.