Alan Zollman wants his students to know what to learn, but also how to learn.

Armed with that skill, he said, they will be able to continue learning throughout their lives and hopefully reach the highest levels of our society.

“We need more Bill Gates and Colin Powells and Warren Buffetts,” the associate professor of mathematical sciences said. “They are a rare asset, a national asset. Somewhere along the line, someone taught them how to learn.”

But it’s apparent that not every teacher and professor in the United States thinks this way. High-level math skills are suffering in the United States, according to a recent study published in the Notices of the American Mathematical Society (AMS).

Those Americans who are proficient in high-level math, especially among females, are mostly immigrants or children of immigrants from countries that value math, the study found.

Senior economics major Jon Sipich has always performed well in math, but can see why others have not.

“We emphasize reading more,” he said of the United States. “When I was a kid, I was better at math than English.”

He credits this ability with good genetics: Both of his parents excel in math.

In the mid 1990s, Hidetada Shimizu, associate professor of leadership, educational psychology and foundations, worked on the first phase of the Trends in International Math and Science Study (TIMSS).

“In the U.S., it’s very teacher-led. The goal here is to get the correct answer,” Shimizu said, citing findings from the study of how math is taught in different countries. “In Japan, they discuss the logic behind understanding a mathematical problem.”

In the United States, mathematical ability is looked at as an intrinsic or innate skill, Shimizu said, while the Japanese believe it is acquired through hard work and effort.

In 2003, eighth-graders in the United States averaged math scores of 504, above the world-wide average of 466, according to the most recently released TIMSS findings. Singapore was tops with a 605. Japan had a 570.

The AMS-published study found that social stigma often prevents students from excelling in math. A typical response heard by the study’s authors was, “Only nerds and Asians do math.”

Zollman, however, won’t stop trying.

“I want students to find derivatives, but I also wants students to know what a derivative is, why they’re using it,” he said, bringing it back to the Gates and Buffett example: “They learned how to learn.”