Math Education

Math anxiety involves an intellectually and emotionally paralyzing fear of mathematics. How can a teacher or a child with math anxiety possibly overcome this malady and develop a positive disposition toward mathematics? In this subunit, we first describe a key cause of math anxiety and then outline what you can do to help someone overcome this paralyzing fear.

Beliefs help explain why some children eagerly undertake the challenge of learning mathematics or solving a mathematical problem while others shrink from such tasks.

A Model of Math Anxiety. The basic assumption of the Anxiety Model is that our emotional responses are not determined by objective reality but by our interpretation of events-by our subjective reality. Consider the cases of Opal and Rochelle described at the beginning of this unit. Opal's reasonable beliefs allowed her to see the situation in perspective. This girl viewed the problem as a challenge and an opportunity to learn. Realistically recognizing that no one knows everything, Opal accepted the fact that she might make mistakes or might not be able to solve the problem without the input of others. Rochelle's unreasonable beliefs prevented her from seeing the situation in perspective and responding effectively to it. Indeed, her beliefs were so extreme they led to a self-defeating, self-perpetuating cycle called math anxiety.

According to the Anxiety Model, math anxiety can be viewed as a personal vicious cycle of unreasonable beliefs, anxiety, and protective behaviors. The case of Paul below illustrates this practical model of math anxiety. After reading it, answer the questions about the model on the next two pages.

Despite his mother's efforts to help him, Paul was more than a year behind his third-grade peers, and the situation appeared to be getting worse. Reluctance to do mathematics had become resistance to do mathematics. Moreover, the boy had begun to break out in hives. In brief, Paul had both psychological and physical symptoms of math anxiety.

The Anxiety Model implies that a teacher should do what to counter math anxiety? Consider the case of Paul described above. What specifically should a teacher do to help Pa overcome his debilitating anxiety. (Hint: A common answer is to ensure that Paul has successful experiences with mathematics. Unfortunately, like many math-anxious children, Paul had become too afraid to even try.)

After studying the model of math anxiety described on the previous page, Chloe concluded, "Sort people respond well to math because they have confidence; others become anxious because they do not have confidence. These differences have nothing to do with what people believe.

Math anxiety is learned, and so it can be prevented or unlearned. Teachers can do the following to avoid or overcome math anxiety: Minimize fear and anxiety. To do so, a teacher can: emphasize understanding and thinking rather than memorizing and quickly regurgitating the correct answer; encourage a variety of strategies, including children's informal methods, instead of requiring children to learn a single schooltaught procedure; treat questions and errors as learning opportunities and as signs of active intelligence, not as interruptions or signs of stupidity; choose experiences carefully so that children generally experience success.

To prevent or break the vicious cycle of math anxiety, encourage reasonable and construcrive beliefs. For students already afflicted with math anxiety, the Anxiety Model suggests encouraging them to examine and refute debilitating beliefs and to replace them with constructive beliefs. Indeed, it may be necessary to change entrenched and debilitating beliefs before efforts are made to remedy academic deficiencies. In brief, to break the emotional freeze produced by math anxiety, a teacher must attack the source of the problem-the unreasonable beliefs causing the anxiety.