Bradley receives certification

Mary Bradley

Mary Bradley of Cherokee recently received certification as a Developmental Education Specialist from the Kellogg Institute for the training and certification of Developmental Educators.

Bradley, math instructor at Southwestern Community College, was one of 45 educators selected from across the United States each year to participate in this certification process. Kellogg certified developmental educators number fewer than 800 in the field.

“It was intense,” said Bradley, “but out of it came my research project on embedding study skills that’s really making a difference in how I teach developmental math classes.”

Bradley, who has been teaching at SCC for 10 years, finds that many of her students come into class with “math anxiety,” and are convinced they are not good at math.

“Doesn’t matter if they are fresh out of high school and didn’t get a strong background or if they have been out of school so long they have just forgotten,” she said.

“If you give students study skills they can learn step by step and build their confidence along with their skills.”

Students might find they actually can do math, she said, but develop test anxiety. In that case, Bradley helps them with test-taking and stress-reducing skills.

“We’ll go through strategies that give them success along the way. In math you have to make mistakes to learn how to problem solve correctly. I teach students that mistakes are not a failure, they are just part of the struggle,” she said.

Math is sequential, Bradley said, in that basic skills must be learned before progressing to another level. Her study strategies work along that same principle.

Along with their back pack, students can carry Bradley’s math study strategies to their other classes.

“We can make them better test takers in their other subjects, too,” she added. “I think we are on to something here.”

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