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Downloadable PDF - What is maths anxiety? Signs, Facts and Other Factors
Information adapted From Additude
What is maths anxiety?
Mathematics anxiety and dyscalculia often go hand in hand but they are not the same thing. Someone can therefore have dyscalculia and experience anxiety just as someone else can have maths anxiety but not dyscalculia. Maths anxiety is usually linked to emotional factors and not cognitive ones.
Maths anxiety can be reflected in the brain. A study from Stanford University showed that students with maths anxiety activate brain regions like the amygdala and the medial prefrontal cortex that are associated with fear and coping with negative emotions when working on math problems. Students without maths anxiety, on the other hand, activate carriers in and around the parietal cortex that are involved in mathematics achievement.
Below is a document that compares dyscalculia and maths anxiety. Click on the top right corner to download a PDF version.
Dyscalculia vs. Maths Anxiety.pdfInformation adapted from Steve Chinn
Signs of and Facts About Mathematics Anxiety
Anxiety occurs when an anticipated event is expected to make demands for which the person is unprepared.
Feelings of tension and anxiety that interfere with the manipulation of numbers and the solving of mathematical problems in a wide variety of ordinary life and academic situations.
Mental block anxiety can be triggered by a symbol or a concept that creates a barrier for the person learning maths. (Division and fractions are top problems for many!)
Socio-cultural maths anxiety is a consequence of common beliefs about maths, such as, if you cannot learn facts you will never be any good at maths and, as a way of reducing anxiety, ‘I’ll never need this stuff when I leave school.’
Anxiety is a state of discomfort which occurs in response to situations involving mathematical tasks which are perceived as threatening to self-esteem.
Maths anxiety is subjective. Some children and adults hide it or underplay it.
Maths anxiety is part of an escalation of severity of emotional impact.
Other factors affecting maths anxiety
Working memory
Working memory is vital to maths, especially mental arithmetic. In maths tasks that rely on the working memory system, highly anxious maths students show degraded performance either in speed or accuracy. Therefore, having to do maths quickly can create anxiety.
Choice
It is important to explore different methods for solving problems, but choice can make some students anxious. These students want ONE method and it must be as universal as possible. ‘Don’t explain this to me. Give me one method that will work for any similar example I will ever meet!’ This needs empathetic classroom management.
Classroom factors and learner characteristics that contribute to maths anxiety
Tasks that lack visual support.
A curriculum that does not take into account the range of learners at whom it is targeted.
The categorical nature of maths; answers are often termed as ‘right’ or ‘wrong'
Inconsistency, change and uncertainty. Some examples:
whole numbers go, one, tens, hundreds, thousands. Decimal numbers go tenths, hundredths, thousandths. There are no oneths!
We say fifteen and write 15, the reverse order
Fear of negative evaluation
Reluctance to risk take and make mistakes, which is closely linked to negative evaluation. Classrooms need a risk-taking ethos.
Avoidance and withdrawal. An effective way of dealing with negative evaluation is not to do the work.
Below is a document that compares outlines strategies to support students with maths anxiety. Click on the top right corner to download a PDF version.
Support for Maths Anxiety.pdfPage updated
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