Kids Have 'Math Anxiety' Thanks To Parents and Teachers, Report Finds (vice.com)

A new report out of the University of Cambridge studied the experiences of a total of 2,700 primary and secondary students in the UK and Italy and found that primary and secondary school girls had higher levels of both math anxiety and general anxiety than boys. "The study also focuses on how parents and teachers shape math performance and attitudes, perhaps without even realizing it," adds Motherboard. "In the same way that anxious parents can shape their children's anxiety, math-anxious mentors can shape how kids view their own math anxiety." From the report: The new study builds on previous research by highlighting the importance of teachers and parents' own math anxieties impacting students. Most students that the researchers talked to said that their anxiousness started when the math topics became more challenging, and they felt like they couldn't do them. Another reason the students' said they were struggling was because multiple teachers were teaching them math, and it became confusing across teaching styles. "Importantly -- and surprisingly -- this new research suggests that the majority of students experiencing maths anxiety have normal to high maths ability," Josh Hillman, Director of Education at the Nuffield Foundation, said in a press release.

Several of the excerpts of the interviews conducted by researchers with math-anxious kids are heartbreaking: Many described feelings that they knew the answers but panicked, or tried to battle through initial confusion. One child, around 9 or 10 years old, said: "Once, I think it was the first day and he picked on me, and I just kind of burst into tears because everybody was staring at me and I didn't know the answer. Well I probably knew it but I hadn't thought it through." Another described doing a fractions test: "It means like enormously [nervous], and enormously means like massively... I felt very unwell and I was really scared and because my table's in the corner, I kind of just like tried to not be in the lesson."

Comments

Are M&Ms involved?

[peterofoz]

No anxiety from my daughter in elementary school. Had to do long division. We used M&Ms and she got to eat the remainder. Dad had to plan the problems carefully to attain remainders less than 5.

New math

[Anonymous Coward]

Part of it is because of constantly changing the way students are taught to do math. Especially as their parents cannot help them if they don't understand. I learned math in the 60s and 70s. There was nothing wrong with the way we were taught, and students today should be taught the same way! A couple of years ago a friend's grandchildren were trying to learn division. Their teacher was having them try to do it some weird and torturous way. I showed them how I learned to do long division, and they remarked how much easier it was than the method that they were being taught.

I know that these days everyone has a phone, tablet or a computer with a calculator program. That does not help if the person does not know how to properly formulate the problem.

Re:That isn't "math anxiety."

[gweihir]

We did set theory (and hence elementary logic) in elementary school. Probably the mart that was most useful to me later. A few years later they dropped it because it was "too hard". I never noticed that, I think this was purely the adults projecting.

Collect the dumb kids together

[reanjr]

The pacing of math is wrong for the vast majority of kids. Many are bored to death, just as many are confused and barely skating through. But our math education is all laid out on a rigid timeline. We need to not just get of rid of the idea of grades (4th grade math is a stupid concept), but we also need to actively collect dumb students and smart students into their own groups early on.

Math education should simply be standardized tests that you can take when you feel ready. Any other form of grading or advancement will inevitably lead to a poor education for the majority of the students.

Great, except that wouldn't work

[Texmaize]

I know you mean well. I know you solution of just passing tests seems like it would make sense to many as logical and reasonable. It would to me too if I had spent close to zero hours on the other side of the desk. Certainly not in a k-12 setting. Your idea does have some merits in a perfect world, but as it is we live in a resource limited world.

We do not structure our classes the way we do because they are the most effective for learning. We do it so the most kids can be reached per staffing dollar. Your class format would simply be unteachable. Kids often need help and explanations for each topic. Non-mathy kids (most) struggle with texts. If you personalize lessons to each kid, then you would need an incredible amount of teachers. Maybe as a society if we truly valued education, we could afford this. The bald truth is we do not. So, we don't.

In private schools, they do what really works which is have smaller, homogenous classes of about 10-14. This is good because students really do learn well from talking to each other. You can also read body language and give fast help as needed. This type of intervention is probably closest to what the OP meant.

The seriously bad mistake that has been introduced into the class since you have been in school is the idea of differentiated learning. Some genius had the idea it is more important to make kids feel good instead of actually teaching them at their level. So, math classes are no longer tracked in any meaningful way until late junior high. All kids of all ability levels are in the same room. The teacher is supposed to come up with lessons to reach all students. Which means you have to cater to less strong students. The average students quickly learn to play dumb so they get less work or at least easier stuff. The brighter kids just get bored.

The one year I was in this system, I had honors kids mixed with special ed. It was not effective for anyone. The thing is, the special needs kid could learn math, but you had to go slower and re-explain. If he was with similar ability, then he could have advanced well. Since he was outclassed by most of his peers, he felt like a bother, which made it harder to reach him because he did not want his friends to get impatient. I truly loathe the administrators who came up with this scheme. It was so frustrating.

The best solution is to probably reduce class sizes to levels like private schools. Sadly, I do not foresee this happening. The other factor is that the U.S. spends more per student than any one else. What you might have never heard is that more than a lion's share of that funding goes into administration. So, even if you offer more, it won't go to the kids. If we want change, we need to change the culture of the schools and how they are ran. I am very pessimistic about such a change because there is way to much money being made by way to many. That sort of corruption is hard to conquer.