A Glimpse into the Math Anxiety Ecosystem

Where does math anxiety come from?

Papert (1980), stated that children begin their lives curious and eager to learn, and they need to learn to have trouble with learning. So, where does anxiety stem? "Math anxiety is an adverse emotional reaction to math or the prospect of doing math" (Maloney & Beilock, 2012, p. 404). Math anxiety can affect individuals of all ages who experience increased levels of anxiety in any situation involving math. Math anxiety has been found to affect students even in early primary grades.

(Luttenberger et al., 2018; Maloney et al., 2012)

"Individuals state math anxiety manifests itself on an emotional, cognitive, and physiological level" (Luttenberger et al., 2018, p. 312). The effects of math anxiety affect individuals differently. Math anxiety is on a spectrum. Some individuals experience mild or moderate levels of anxiety in various situations, while others experience a high amount of math anxiety that impacts their ability to focus on the mathematics. Maloney et al (2012, p. 404), stated that "people's anxiety about doing math - over and above their actual math ability - is an impediment to math achievement." The anticipation about doing math becomes a roadblock compromising important cognitive resources, the working memory. The working memory is responsible for maintaining focus on a task. When anxiety gets in the way math performance often suffers because the anxiety takes away from resources to do the math. Knowing and understanding the antecedents for math anxiety can help parents and educators intervene earlier.

A host of factors make up the math anxiety ecosystem. I coined this term from a webinar I participated in the Spring. Dr. Ansari described math anxiety as an ecosystem and that term resonated with me (Ansari et al., 2022).

Adapted from: A Framework for Understanding Math Anxiety (Luttenberger et al., 2018, p. 313)

There are a multitude of experiences, math myths (see below), cultural influences, and personal dispositions that can come together to create the math anxiety ecosystem. How one is affected depends on any number of these antecedents and interacting variables. For example, research shows that social influences like mothers or female teachers are more likely to unknowingly pass their own math anxieties onto their female daughters/students (Maloney et al., 2012; Kulkin, 2016; Luttenberger, 2018).

Having an awareness of the potential causes of math anxiety can help avoid, navigate, and/or work through the feelings to experience more positive math experiences.

Adapted from Phelps-Gregory et al., (2020) & Kogelman et al., (1978)

....Alleviating math anxiety -- what can you do?

"When students formerly blocked by fear change their trajectory, obstacles become stepping stones" (Kulkin, 2016, p. 32).

Watching a loved one experience any type of anxiety can be heartbreaking. There are a number of things parents and educators can do to support individuals who suffer from math anxiety. Even if you struggle with math anxiety, know that you don't need to completely overcome your own anxieties in order to support your child. (Schaefer et al., 2018).

14 Ways to Alleviate Math Anxiety:

1) Be Involved. "Interventions involving parents and children together can have powerful lasting effects on children’s academic achievement and suggest that changes in parents’ expectations for their children’s potential for success in math, and the value they place on this success, play a role in these sustained effects." (Schaefer et al., p. 1, 2018).

2) Understand the antecedents: know where math anxiety may develop and intervene early.

3) Stay positive! Talk about math in a positive way. Encourage the process and mastery of learning vs. test scores (Kiss et al., 2017).

4) Expressive writing: Maloney et al., stated that "writing alleviates the burden that negative thoughts place on working memory by affording people an opportunity to re-evaluate the stressful experience" (2012, p. 405). Have students journal, or write down their emotions before a test or performance task.

5) Change the discourse: Have students think positively about a testing situation by wording it as a challenge (opportunity to show their learning) vs. a threat (Maloney et al., 2012, p. 405).

6) Emphasize real-world problems and connect to everyday math problems.

7) Make math visual: "celebrate students' visual approaches & replace the idea that strong mathematics learners are those who memorize and calculate well" (Boaler et al., 2016, p. 329).

8) Foster communication: talk about their fears and feelings. Have open conversations about math. Listen to their feelings, and offer a safe space for them to share their concerns.

9) Breathing exercises can help calm their anxiety and bring their focus back to the math task (Educators, do a quick breathing activity before a challenging task or assessment).

10) Work together as a school and family community to support the child. There is a lot of evidence that identified the importance of parents attitudes towards math significantly influencing their children's math achievement and anxiety (Maloney et al., 2015).

11) Affirmations: write affirmations on post-it notes, and speak them. Encourage your child to write affirmations about how successful they can be [in math] (Finlayson, 2014).

12) Avoid timed activities and instead build fluency through games. One mathematical myth is that people who are good at math can solve math facts quickly in their head. Timing activities often cause a lot of anxiety and worry. Fluency can be developed when kids play board and dice games that require calculations in a fun environment.

13) Be enthusiastic, believe in your child, & celebrate successes (Finlayson, 2014).

14) Make math fun. Play games together, notice the math around them, talk about how you use math every day.

References:

Ansari, D., Askey, S. (2022, May). Math Anxiety in Children: A webinar on the causes and consequences of math anxiety. Hosted by Western University BrainsCAN, TVDSB, and Center for Science and Learning, May 25, 2022 https://brainscan.uwo.ca/research/brainscan_educate/math_anxiety.html

Boaler, J., Chen, L., Williams, C., Cordero, M. (2016). Seeing as understanding: the importance of visual mathematics for our brain and learning. Journal of Applied and Computational Mathematics 5(5) p. 325-330.

Finlayson, M. (2014). Addressing math anxiety in the classroom. Improving Schools 17(1) p. 99-115.

Kiss, A. J., & Vukovic, R. (2017). Math anxiety and attitudes toward mathematics: implications for students with mathematics learning disabilities. Perspectives on Language and Literacy, 43(1) p. 35-39.

Kogelman, S., & Warren, J. (1978). Mind over math: Put yourself on the road to success by freeing yourself from math anxiety. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Kulkin, M. (2016). Math is like a scary movie: helping young people overcome math anxiety. Afterschool Matters 23 p. 28-32.

Luttenberger, S., Wimmer, S., Paechter, M. (2018). Spotlight on math anxiety. Psychology Research and Behaviour Management 11 p. 311-322.

Maloney, E., Beilock, S. (2012). Math anxiety: who has it, why it develops, and how to guard against it. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 16(8), p. 404-406.

Maloney, E., Ramirez, G., Gunderson, E., Levine, S., Beilock, S. (2015). Intergenerational effects of parents' math anxiety on children's math achievement and anxiety. Psychological Science 26(9) p. 1480-1488 DOI: 10.1177/0956797615592630

Papert, S. (1980). Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas. New York, NY: Basic Books.

Phelps-Gregory, C., Frank, M., Spitzer, S. (2020). Prospective elementary teachers' beliefs about mathematical myths: a historical and qualitative examination. The Teacher Educator 55(1) p. 6-27.

Schaeffer, M., Rozek, C., Berkowitz, T., Levine, S, Beilock, S. (2018). Disassociating the relation between parents' math anxiety and childrens math achievement: long-term effects of a math app intervention. Journal of Experimental Psychology 147:12 p. 1782-1790 DOI:10.1037/xge0000490