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Assisting Students in Overcoming Math Anxiety

Assisting Students in Overcoming Math Anxiety to Reach Their Full Potential

Noah Smith
200366521
University of Regina
ECS100- Corey Hadden, Blair Gullickson, Lois Martinson

Assisting Students in Overcoming Math Anxiety

Abstract
The goal of this paper was to find information about how future teachers can help their students
to succeed in their class. This turned out to be an indubitably difficult task. However, the search
was not in vain even though it seemed highly unlikely to be able to answer the overall question
of how can future teachers assist students in reaching their full potential in the classroom.
Nonetheless by changing the focus of the question and dividing it into smaller sections by
attempting to answer this new question of how can future teachers help students reach their full
potential in mathematics turned out to be much more probable. In the quest to figure out this
question, three articles were used. They focused on changing the attitudes of the children first
then using fun hands on activities to capture their attention.

Assisting Students in Overcoming Math Anxiety

Assisting Students in Overcoming Math Anxiety to Reach Their Full Potential

While researching I wanted to take a couple of approaches to the initial question. I
wanted to find out what are some issues that cause the students to not perform optimally and
what can future teachers do to help this issue in the future. In the article Math Anxiety: Can
Teachers Help Students Reduce It? Ask the Cognitive Scientist Beilock, Sian L.; Willingham,
Daniel T (2014). This article takes a look at the anxiety that math causes so many students
around the world with. The research that is done links the points that if a student is anxious about
math he or she will not perform well because he or she does not want to participate in math;
some might assume its pretty much just another name for bad at math. Math anxiety
implies more than bad at math. It implies that someone would be better at math if he or she
werent so anxious. (Beilock, Sian, Willingham, Daniel, 29). The article stresses the importance
of this point. Everyone has the potential to learn math but if everyone has this stigma about math
and just the name of it makes people want to shut down it makes it really difficult to learn.
Finding ways to deal with this issue to make math a subject that more and more people enjoy to
ensure that they will be successful in the future is important. The researchers acknowledged the
question:
Some of my students seem to get really nervous about math. I can
understand not liking the subject very much-to be honest, I dont love it
myself - but their nervousness seems to get in the way of their
understanding. How can I reassure them or otherwise make them less
anxious? (Beilock, Sian L.; Willingham, Daniel T).
The work the researchers did was quite informative. They did discuss some ways of
dealing with the math anxiety that will be covered in a moment. What was really
interesting was the direct correlation between students that have high levels of math

Assisting Students in Overcoming Math Anxiety

anxiety and their level of performance in math. As stated in the article After all,
math anxious individuals stay away from math courses and math related situations,
and they learn less math in the courses they do take. (Beilock, Sian, Willingham,
Daniel, 29). That statement makes a lot of sense; people who are usually
uncomfortable with something usually dont want to participate in activities
involving the things they are not comfortable with. This article also highlighted the
astonishing amount of students that suffer from math anxiety:
International comparisons of high school students show that some students
in every country are anxious about math. It is perhaps unsurprising that
there is an inverse relationship between anxiety and efficacy: countries
where kids are less proficient in math (as measured by the Program for
international Student Assessment or PISA) tend to have higher levels of
math anxiety. In the United States, an estimated 25 percent of four year
college students and up to 80 percent of community college students suffer
from moderate to high degree of math anxiety. Most students report having
at least one negative experience math at some point during their schooling.
(Beilock, Sian, Willingham, Daniel, 29).
Those statistics are truly startling and enlightening. The statistics really
highlight that it is not just a problem with a specific age group, but it is a problem
with the majority of people who are dealing with math every day because of their
education. It is going to be a big undertaking to lower the stress associated with
math. There are a few things teachers can do to try and limit this stress. An option
that the article suggests is that we should focus on teacher training Knowledge
that a teachers math anxiety can affect her students math achievement suggests that

Assisting Students in Overcoming Math Anxiety

we also need to ensure that teachers feel fully confident in their preparation to teach
math. (Beilock, Sian L.; Willingham, Daniel T, 31). That is just one example of
many provided in this article on how we can try to overcome math anxiety.
The next article that I read was Helping Students with Mathematical
Disabilities to Succeed by Elizabeth Wadlington and Patrick L. Wadlington. This
article explained a little more about the math learning disability known as
Dyscalculia is. The article explained that math disabilities are as common as reading
disabilities which was interesting. Before this paper I had no prior information about
math disabilities. The article also shed some light on math anxiety and the
importance of it. You dont have to have a math disability to develop math anxiety. A
lot of children who think of themselves as bad at math will usually develop math
anxiety. It also went into a little more detail, breaking down math anxiety into
Specific Math Anxiety, and General Math Anxiety.
In specific math anxiety, an individual is anxious about a particular
mathematical situation. This person is usually not afraid of mathematics in
general and believes that he or she can learn it with appropriate instruction. In
global math anxiety, an individual feels stressed in all mathematical situations
and abhors all aspects of mathematics, and he or she spends time and energy
in avoiding mathematics. (Elizabeth Wadlington and Patrick L. Wadlington,
3).
The article also discussed that other factors can be present when a student
struggles with math:
For example, lack of motivation can affect students abilities to learn
mathematics (Farmer et al., 2002; Spafford & Grosser, 1996). Also, a
teachers lack of experience and confidence can lead to poor instruction,

Assisting Students in Overcoming Math Anxiety

which prevents learning (Marshall, 2003). In addition, a students lack of

prerequisite skills can hinder the learning of new information (Levine, 1993;
Spafford & Grosser). (Elizabeth Wadlington and Patrick L. Wadlington, 3).
The article not only went over information about math anxiety which was
informative none the less, it also went over how to overcome math anxiety which I
found to be insightful.
I really like this article; it shed some light onto math anxiety which I didnt
even know about until I started conducting research for this assignment. It can be
frustrating to teachers when an intelligent student struggles so much with a subject
you expect them to do well in. My little cousin named Marina struggles a lot with
math. It is interesting because she excels in every other subject. She won an award
and had to do a presentation with some other students in front of her school which
she was happy to do. She is in grade three but has her own reading group with grade
fives because in that particular area she strives in. However I believe she has math
anxiety. She is aware of her abilities and not doing as well in math is difficult for her.
It gets to the point where she just will not want to do her math homework. I go over
to her house every once in a while to help her with her math. She enjoys this. The
article made an important point of when trying to overcome math anxiety is to make
sure that the environment is a safe one. If the student isnt fearful of what his or her
peers will think if they get an incorrect answer they will not feel as pressured to get
the right answer which will help them to relax. The article also went over some
general instruction ideas:
Students with mathematical difficulties should be seated near the focus of
instruction and should actively engage in lessons. Instruction should be well
organized with new ideas logically building on old ones. Teachers should preview

Assisting Students in Overcoming Math Anxiety

the lesson and its objectives before they begin instruction. For students to construct
their own knowledge in meaningful ways, it is best for teachers to start instruction
with concrete objects and then move to pictures and diagrams. (Elizabeth
Wadlington and Patrick L. Wadlington, 5).
It seems so simple but not a lot teacher adapt to the needs of their students. They do
not set them up for success. It is important for current teachers and future ones to set their
students up for success.
The final article I looked at is Helping Students Overcome Math Anxiety by Gary
Scarpello. The article talks about some of the causes of Math Anxiety and in when it
usually starts and what years it peaks at. The article talks about the importance of getting
over math anxiety because it can limit our students job possibilities in the future if they
limit themselves by not taking algebra for example in high school. It also stresses the
important role parents play on math anxiety and career choice. The researcher also found
that the students grades in math seemed to be higher when the students felt like they were
receiving support from their parents. The article also discusses what teachers can do to
make sure the students are successful and how they can reduce the levels of math anxiety
in their classroom.
This research for this paper was super informative. Like I said during an earlier
point I had no prior knowledge about math anxiety and how it was such a huge deal in the
classroom. By dealing with the problems each student has with a subject. Even it if it is
only one subject at a time, this ensures that we are heading down the right path to make all
the subjects enjoyable for the students. By dealing with math then by dealing with other
subjects and making school as a whole more enjoyable that is going to increase the number
of students that want to attend. Doing research like this on how students can find success in
a certain subject or reach their full potential is so important for the world because the

Assisting Students in Overcoming Math Anxiety

students are going to be the future. We obviously would prefer an educated population that
can reflect on previous knowledge to make informed decisions that will maybe impact us
on a positive way. It is important to remember that this change does not necessarily begin
with the students, but instead it happens with the teachers who help those students to reach
their full potential.

References
Beilock, L, S., Willingham, & T, D. (2014). Math Anxiety: Can Teachers
Help Students Reduce It? Ask the Cognitive Scientist. Retrieved February 23, from
http://files.eric.ed.gov.libproxy.uregina.ca:2048/fulltext/EJ1043398.pdf
Wadlington, E., & Wadlington, P. L. (2008). Helping students with
mathematical disabilities to succeed. Preventing School Failure, 53(1), 2-7.
Retrieved from https://login.libproxy.uregina.ca:8443/login?
url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/228448109?accountid=13480
Scarpello, G. (2007). Helping students get past math anxiety. Techniques,
82(6), 34-35. Retrieved from https://login.libproxy.uregina.ca:8443/login?
url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/216121167?accountid=13480