National Education > General National Education Discussion

Have you experienced maths anxiety?

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Joseph41:
And, more broadly, what do you think about it? According to this article, it can cause "a thumping heart, butterflies in the stomach and sweaty palms."

In a primary school featured in that same article, "a pilot program grounded in psychology is giving teachers the skills to identify and address maths anxiety in themselves and their students."

What do we think? Is this an issue with the way we teach - or project the idea of - mathematics in Australian schools?

Poet:
Yes, absolutely. People say that maths is an easy subject because it’s so black and white. But it’s really not, and I get stressed about my inability to understand it purely because it is so supposedly black and white. My anxiety when it comes to maths definitely includes sweaty palms, but I tend to overthink things and shut down instead of getting riled up. My heart beats faster and I can’t think anymore. I just end up staring at the page panicking.

I think that this isn’t the fault of any school or teaching method. Out of personal experience, I won’t blame anyone or anything but my own mind. Everyone functions differently - some see maths as a straightforward thing. Others don’t. It’s part of our uniqueness as individuals; what our brains can and can’t comprehend. And when we are expected to understand something in a compulsory manner, this can be really stressful and can potentially lead to symptoms of anxiety. I don’t think there is any other way to work with it - there’s a point in life where the sickness and panic isn’t something your teachers or the school system should be responsible for. Maths anxiety isn’t something the entire system should revolve around. If we try to fully cater for everything, we’ll end up contradicting ourselves and making a bigger mess of the system than it already is.

I’m not sure if what I’ve said makes sense, but tl;dr I don’t think it’s an issue with teaching method - it’s a personal thing that families should work to support.

If teachers are learning psychological methods, they should get paid more.

Lear:
I agree with above. It really comes down to person. However, I think another thing that can cause aforementioned maths anxiety is the lack of a solid foundation. We all know English to be a subject you can’t simply learn from a textbook over a year and perform well in. Being good at English begins in one’s early years (I’d say even down to year 4-5). From what I’ve noticed in my school, those who have been readers in their early years and consistently worked on their English through out years 7-10 tend to be the best in it during VCE.

Likewise, having a solid basis in maths is important. As it is predominantly an application subject (unlike, say, HHD where memorisation is more important) one needs to have a good understanding of typical mathematics. This begins, in my opinion, in around year 7. One cannot expect to neglect math up to VCE and then go on to simply ‘get it’. To ‘get’ maths a person needs to understand why things happen and why we use certain methods to solve questions. Connected to this is students’ habit of simply memorising formulas and steps to questions without actually understanding why those are applied. The purpose of tests and exams is to test your knowledge to unfamiliar situations. Thus, in my opinion, what separates those who score in the 30s and those who score in 40s is the habit of questioning why one does x and how the math works.

Aaron:
Absolutely.

Maths as a discipline itself has that negative stigma attached to it.

I unfortunately do think some of it has to do with the teaching of maths both currently and in the past. We are still teaching via textbooks rather than finding creative ways to teach maths and it really is disappointing. As a maths teacher I really do try and come up with creative and varied ways of teaching maths... it really is a tough thing to learn as a student, and a tough discipline to teach as a teacher because content knowledge alone isn't enough. You're battling negativity, mental rejection, acceptance of maths being 'hard' etc.

I did a PD last year which focused on maths anxiety (hence why my face lit up when I saw this title), and I agreed with the idea that students think it's OK to be bad at maths and not like it, purely because that's an accepted attitude in our society. Obviously one consequence of this is a fixed mindset which doesn't help anybody.

I also don't think tests/exams are the be all and end all and there are ways to be 'good' at maths rather than demonstrating an ability to regurgitate information under timed conditions. It's no wonder that those who achieve highly throughout the year then bomb out during an exam - it's anxiety more than anything.

Part of my PD looked at the idea of reframing tests - rather than giving a student an "A" grade or a percentage mark and say 'congratulations, you've achieved 90%' for example, we focus on growth and whether the student has improved and built upon their previous understanding. It's a massive challenge for current teachers (especially veterans) as this is what the current/previous models have accepted as the norm for testing.

I'm glad i've had experience doing testing/collecting data in this way, because it has allowed me to approach achievement in a completely different way.


--- Quote from: secretly_a_poet ---If teachers are learning psychological methods, they should get paid more.
--- End quote ---
Just another thing teachers have to be experts at, for literally no compensation :)  8)

Just some thoughts....

Edit: I actually wrote this without reading the linked article, however after reading it.... it's interesting to read some quotes:

--- Quote ---“A student might think their maths ability is fixed, or inherited, or they might say, ‘I am just not a maths person’.
--- End quote ---

--- Quote ---Maths was surrounded by harmful myths that could also lead to this anxiety
--- End quote ---

--- Quote ---It’s hoped overcoming this fear ensures teachers don't inadvertently transmit negative attitudes about maths to their students.
--- End quote ---

PhoenixxFire:
Not so much the whole thumping heart, sweaty palms thing, I just completely gave up on it cos that's what I do when I don't think I can do something. My first U1 methods SAC I did really badly in. The one after that I picked B for all of the multiple choice and (badly) drew butterflies all over it. I figured that since I did badly on the first one, I just couldn't do math.

Math kind of has to be taught in order as well which doesn't really help. I remember when I was in methods my teacher would be explaining stuff and writing it on the board and he would go through steps but skip the details about how he got that because he assumed we knew - and I didn't. I never asked though because everyone else seemed to get it and our teacher would 'joke' about people getting things wrong, but that's another story haha.

I suppose math is kinda hard to teach because of that as well. Do you explain every step and bore half the class, or do you skip it and confuse half of them.

I definitely do think there's a perception that you either get math or you don't. In some subjects if you do well it's like 'you must have studied hard' but then in math it's more like 'you must be smart'



--- Quote from: Aaron on August 23, 2018, 06:03:39 pm ---We are still teaching via textbooks rather than finding creative ways to teach maths and it really is disappointing. As a maths teacher I really do try and come up with creative and varied ways of teaching maths.

--- End quote ---
I interviewed a person for a math teacher job at my school last year and we asked about creative ways of teaching maths. I can't remember exactly what it was she said but she told us of a time when she was at dinner and it was windy and so her glass was making a noise. She said that gave her the idea to experiment with her math class on the best wind angle and the diameter of the bottle needed to make different pitched noises and that's how she taught them that. - She got the job haha

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