Math Anxiety: Conquering Students’ Fear of Math

  

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Math is a subject that many students dread because they fear making mistakes. This anxiety really can paralyze students’ problem-solving ability by stimulating greater activity in the amygdala, the emotional center of the brain, which hinders the effectiveness of the prefrontal cortex, the home of working memory and critical thinking. Usually, a person processes a problem initially in the amygdala then sends the relevant information to the prefrontal cortex. When students feel stress about facing a math problem though, their brains will not allow them to access the working memory needed to solve the problem.

Math and education experts continue to research what may trigger this early math-related anxiety, as highlighted in Education Week’s article about a recent Learning and the Brain Conference. Math stress creates negative feelings about math and keeps many students from pursuing math in higher education or their careers. An especially interesting finding is that the students who experience the effects of math anxiety most acutely may be the ones who would otherwise have the most enthusiasm for the subject. Stress caused students who identified most with math to perform worse than other students. However, in non-stressful situations, the math-leaning students performed better. The students who identified with math were taken to be those who sought out further opportunities in the math program.

An important part of the research shows that parents and teachers can pass on their math anxiety to students. One way that Dr. Judy Willis, a neurologist, former middle school teacher, and author of Learning to Love Math, says that teachers can keep students from developing a fear of math is asking each student to answer every question. They can answer anonymously, either using electronic clickers or scratch paper, and then “bet” on answers. Participation is crucial to building solid foundations and confidence in math. What other strategies do you use to help students conquer their dread of math?