Math anxiety is the feeling of tension and fear that many people experience when asked to work out a sum. For children, this can lead to behavioral problems in the classroom, as well as physical symptoms such as butterflies in the stomach and a racing heart.
Students with high math anxiety perform worse in standardized math tests and school exams. Anxious thoughts hinder the recall of mathematically related facts and procedures, and also the execution of these procedures well. It is often described as the experience of emptying your mind.
Our new research shows that math anxiety not only affects how children perform in exams, but also their ability to learn new math concepts and procedures in class.
Early start
We introduced more than 200 six-year-old schoolchildren in the UK and Italy to maths they had not previously covered in school. These include additions with tens and the use of the smaller axis and larger than characters.
The children’s knowledge of these mathematical procedures and concepts was measured before teaching, immediately afterwards, and thereafter one week later. We found that children who were more anxious about math often started with a lower level of relevant knowledge. But more importantly, these children learned less from the training sessions. It was shown in their performance immediately after the workout and a week later.
In other words, our study shows that students who are anxious about maths not only struggle during the exam, but that they learn less math at school than non-anxious students with the same educational opportunities.
Another important finding from our research relates to the age of the children. Our participants were only six years old. Other studies have found that children at such a young age already experience math anxiety, but there has been debate as to whether it will have any effect on mathematical performance of young children. Our studies clearly show that math anxiety has an impact on this age.
If math anxiety reduces learning from the beginning of school, it means that math anxiety can lead to cumulative gaps in knowledge during the school years. It is not surprising that students who feel anxious about maths can finish with lower maths degrees and avoid career choices in mathematically intensive fields.
Lifelong impact
But the implications of math anxiety go far beyond school. People who feel anxious about math can also experience problems in their daily lives, such as making worse decisions about their finances and health.
An example is when people feel uncomfortable interpreting statistics and graphs regarding the effects of COVID-19, and yet have to make lifestyle choices based on this information.
Other forms of anxiety, as well as procrastination, avoidance of challenges, and low levels of self-esteem and self-esteem are also common among people with math anxiety. In general, math anxiety can have a strong impact on people’s life success and satisfaction.
This calls for early assessment and intervention. Just as it is possible to improve maths performance in struggling students, it is also possible to overcome math anxiety.
Parents and teachers can convey negative attitudes and anxiety towards math. Some intervention approaches focus on increasing parents’ confidence in their own ability to help their children learn math and give them ideas for fun math games that can be played at home.
Computer programs and programs are also recommended for practicing mathematics. One benefit of this approach is that computers provide a motivating, attractive, and non-judgmental environment for practicing essential skills, and that they can be used without the contribution of trained professionals.
Other research suggests that students’ attention to previous cases where they have successfully overcome challenges in their mathematics learning can increase self-confidence and lead to more positive attitudes and less anxiety. Indeed, high levels of math anxiety are not always associated with low levels of achievement. The problem is that people with a high level of anxiety do not reach their full potential. Practicing math with a tutor can also reduce anxiety.
Although math anxiety is linked to a number of negative consequences, there are many ways people can deal with their anxiety and avoid these negative outcomes. Another better option is to avoid the development of math anxiety altogether. Our research suggests that efforts to develop positive attitudes toward mathematics should begin in the early school years, or even earlier.
This article by Kinga Morsanyi, Senior Lecturer in Mathematical Cognition, Loughborough University; Carlo Tomasetto, Associate Professor of Developmental and Educational Psychology, Università di Bologna; Paddy O’Connor, Lecturer (Education), Queen’s University Belfast, and Veronica Guardabassi, Researcher in Developmental and Educational Psychology, Università di Bologna, are published from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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