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Math anxiety is the feeling of tension and fear that many people experience when called upon to calculate a sum. For children, this can lead to behavioral problems in the classroom, as well as physical symptoms like butterflies in their stomachs and a pounding heart.
Students with high mathematical anxiety score lower on standardized math tests and school exams. Anxious thoughts interfere with the recall of facts and mathematical procedures, as well as the proper performance of these procedures. This is often described as the experience of having an empty mind.
Our new research shows that math anxiety not only affects how well children do on exams, it also affects their ability to learn new math concepts and procedures in the classroom.
First beginnings
We have introduced over 200 six-year-olds in the UK and Italy to math that they had not yet studied in school. This included additions with tens and using the less than and greater than signs.
Children’s knowledge of these mathematical concepts and procedures was measured before instruction, immediately after, and then a 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. This was shown in their performance immediately after the workout and a week later.
In other words, our study shows that math-anxious students not only struggle with exams, but they actually learn less math in school than non-anxious students with the same educational opportunities.
Another important finding of our research concerned the age of the children. Our participants were only six years old. Other studies have shown that children at such a young age already experience math anxiety, but there has been some debate as to whether this would somehow affect math performance. young children. Our studies clearly show that mathematical anxiety has an impact at this age.
If mathematical anxiety reduces learning early in school, it means that mathematical anxiety can lead to cumulative knowledge gaps over the school years. It’s no surprise that students who feel anxious about math end their education with lower math scores and avoid career choices in math-intensive fields.
Lifetime impact
But the implications of mathematical anxiety extend far beyond school. People who are anxious about math can also experience difficulties in their day-to-day life, such as making worse decisions about their finances and health.
One example is where people feel uncomfortable interpreting statistics and graphs relating to 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-confidence and self-esteem are also common in people with mathematical anxiety. Overall, math anxiety can have a strong impact on people’s success and satisfaction in life.
This requires early assessment and intervention. However, just as it is possible to improve math performance in struggling students, it is also possible to overcome math anxiety.
Parents and teachers can transmit negative attitudes and anxiety towards math. Some intervention approaches aim to increase parents’ confidence in their own ability to help their children learn math and to provide them with ideas for fun math games that can be played at home.
Computer programs and applications have also been recommended for mathematics practice. An advantage of this approach is that computers provide a motivating, engaging and non-judgmental environment for the practice of certain essential skills, and they can be used without the input of trained professionals.
Other research suggests that drawing students’ attention to past instances where they were successful in overcoming challenges in their math learning can boost self-confidence and lead to more positive and less effective attitudes. ‘anxiety. Indeed, high levels of mathematical anxiety are not always associated with low levels of performance. The problem is, people with high levels of anxiety fail to reach their full potential. Practicing math with a tutor can also reduce anxiety.
While math anxiety is linked to a host of negative consequences, there are many ways people can manage their anxiety and avoid these negative outcomes. However, an even better option is to avoid the development of mathematical anxiety altogether. Our research suggests that efforts to develop positive attitudes towards math should begin in the early years of school, if not earlier.
This article by Kinga Morsanyi, Senior Lecturer in Mathematical Cognition, Loughborough University; Carlo Tomasetto, associate professor in developmental and educational psychology, Università di Bologna; Paddy O’Connor, Senior Lecturer (Education), Queen’s University Belfast, and Veronica Guardabassi, Developmental and Educational Psychology Researcher, Università di Bologna, are republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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