WRVSU Curriculum Toolbox: Math Anxiety

Fear, said math professor and psychologist Dr. Queena Lee Chua, is not a natural reaction. It is a learned one that starts at a young ageâ€”a crutch that, if not addressed properly, you cling to for the rest of your life. ILLUSTRATION: STEPH BRAVO

Math Anxiety

What can we as educators do to prevent the development of
math anxiety in our students?

Watch this video of students taking a math facts test.

Which portion of the math activity do you want for your students?

Research tell us that approximately 93% of all adult US-Americans experience some level of math
anxiety, but we as teachers need to do our best to create adults of the future who do not fear math.
Our society needs students who embrace math. Math is an essential and embedded part of our
modern lives. We must do a better job of preparing our students with the mathematical knowledge
needed for the 21st century workplace.

One common place activity that fuels math anxiety begins to take hold in school with the administering
of timed math facts tests. The "Common Core" has contributed to the continuation of timed facts
tests with its use of the term "fluency" as a goal in math education as this has been interpreted by
some to include timed tests. For many students, timed tests may create fear and anxiety, sabotage
working memory, and begin to create an aversion to math. As soon as students know that they will
be timed, their anxiety will kick-in and their working memory could seize up. Consequently, many
students are sabotaged before they even pick up their pencils. Also, many students in a classroom
using timed math fact tests, will develop the idea that the students who are fast with their facts mastery
are the best math thinkers, which usually is a false indicator of math ability.

The United States is producing great numbers of "Math Fact Memory Masters", but that is not what
we need for today's workplace and for the future. What we need is great math explorers and thinkers.
Math is about inquiry, construction, decomposing, communication, connections, and representations. We need students who can see the big picture, analyze the parts, and think deeply.

What can we as educators do

to prevent the development of math anxiety in our students?

Help Students Build Their “Number Sense”.

We need to help our students develop “number sense” which is one’s ability to think of
numbers flexibly. When presented with 18 + 5, show them how to decompose the 5 and make the equation (18+2)+ 3 or 20 +3. When asked what is 18- 9, show them 19-10 = 9. Students need to be constantly decomposing numbers to find easy combinations which make equations balance. Think of fluency as “knowing how a number can be composed and decomposed and using that information to be flexible and efficient with solving problems.” (Parish 2014, p.159)

One great strategy for developing “number sense” is to use a routine called Number Talks
developed by Ruth Parker and Kathy Richardson. Post an equation: 18 x 5. Have each of
your students solve the problem mentally and then relate their steps for solving the equation.
Record all the different methods for everyone to see and discuss. What did student A do?
Why did it work? Which method do you like best? Why?

Students' Thought Processes:

20 x 5= 100

2 x 5= 10

100-10= 90

10 x 5= 50

8 x 5= 40

50 + 40= 90

18 x 5 = 9 x 10

9 x 10 = 90

18 x 2= 36

2 x 36 = 72

18 + 72 = 90