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mathematics anxiety reserach
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The book, Cooperative Learning in Higher Education: Across the Disciplines, Across the Academy, written by Barbra Millis, defines math anxiety as “feelings of tension or anxiety that interfere with the manipulation of numbers and the solving of mathematical problems in a wide variety of ordinary life and academic situations” (57). Deborah Russell claims math anxiety stems from an unpleasant experience with math (“How to Overcome Math Anxiety”), most likely, a student was taught a mathematical concept or formula, but didn’t understand the math behind it, causing the student to feel tense or stressed. The tension someone who suffers from math anxiety feels when he is presented with a math related problem affects his ability to think clearly, …show more content…
According to Burns, “timed tests do not measure what a child understands, but what they can recall” (Math: Facing an American Phobia 53). Giving students with a lack of skills who work slower than an average student also risks causing them to implement the incorrect practice or develop a negative attitude towards math (53).
If math anxiety continues to develop and is not dealt with, it can lead to depression, low self-esteem, and underperformance, according to Niels Kryger and Birte Ravn in their book Learning Beyond Cognition (223). In an article Deborah Russell wrote for ThoughtCo., she states six ways for students to overcome math anxiety: maintaining a positive attitude, asking questions, regularly practicing the material, don’t just read over class notes, actually do the math, hiring a tutor or a peer if need be, and be persistent (“How to Overcome Math
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Students assume they are incapable of understanding a concept because they do not understand it the way it was taught to them. In most cases, that is not true. There are several different learning styles as well as several different teaching styles so a tutor or a friend could approach the material better suited to a student’s learning style. Russell’s sixth and final strategy is to be persistent. The key to making this strategy successful is for students to understand that everyone makes mistakes, and that is okay as long as they learn from their mistakes. It is important for students to keep trying, even if they’re wrong a few times (“How to Overcome Math Anxiety”).
In addition to the teacher teaching concepts in a way most students can understand, Burns also claims the best way teachers can prevent and reduce math anxiety is to “immerse children in doing mathematics by involving them in activities, explorations, and experiments in which they use mathematics and, by doing so, learning mathematical concepts and skills” (69). Instead of standing in front of a class lecturing, math teachers could approach teaching with a hands-on approach. For example, a third teacher is teaching her students how to add
As a middle school math teacher in Chippewa Falls, WI, Steven Reinhart often found that even his extensive planning and detailed lessons yielded less than high achievements from his students. He wanted to know why, that no matter how perfect his lessons were, his students’ level of achievement was so low. It even caused him to question his own methods of teaching. So Reinhart developed an idea to commit to gradually changing his ways of teaching by 10% each year. With the goal of simply teaching a single topic in a better way than the previous year, he “collected and used materials and ideas gathered from supplements, workshops, professional journals, and university classes” to achieve this goal (Reinhart, 2000).
The Algebra II course was a college-prep lecture; they were at a higher level than a general class. With the title of the course, I expected to see well-behaved, attentive learners, who were interested in mathematics. When the apprentices did become disruptive or talkative, I expected that the teacher would discipline the students by sending them out into the hall or to the office, as occurred in my high school classes. I also expected to see a teacher that challenged the students’ knowledge of the subject, and pupils who gladly accepted that challenge. Finally, I anticipated the class lessons to go as follows: collect homework, class notes which are copied by the students, time set aside for the children to practice this work via worksheets and example problems, and then the assignment of homework for the next day. These expectations influenced the ways that I observed and reacted to Ms. Stone’s mathematics
Pateman, Neil A., Ed, et al. Proceedings Of The 27Th International Group For The Psychology Of Mathematics Education Conference Held Jointly With The 25Th PME-NA Conference (Honolulu, Hawaii, July 13-18, 2003). Volume 3. n.p.: International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, 2003. ERIC. Web. 23 Apr.
In this interview I conducted with my host teacher at Benton STEM Elementary, I talked about the various ways that she explores strategies inside her classroom for how students are provided access to mathematical learning experiences. My host teacher has been teaching elementary education for eleven years now and is currently teaching 2nd grade. Talking with her about the various methods that she uses in the classroom really informed me of how I want to teach as a future educator. When conducting the interview, we talked from the differentiation practices that she uses in her classroom when teaching mathematics. I will be connecting this interview to chapter 5 by Jo Boaler that I read on tracking in the mainstream classroom and how students mathematical abilities are affected by this.
The curriculum implies that teachers will teach students the skills they need for the future. Valley View’s High School math department announces, “Students will learn how to use mathematics to analyze and respond to real-world issues and challenges, as they will be expected to do college and the workplace.” Also, the new integrates math class allows students to distinguish the relationship between algebra and geometry. Although students are not being instructed a mathematical issue in depth, they are rapidly going through all the different topics in an integrated math class. Nowadays, students are too worried to pass the course to acquire a problem-solving mind. Paul Lockhart proclaims the entire problem of high school students saying, “I do not see how it's doing society any good to have its members walking around with vague memories of algebraic formulas and geometric diagrams and dear memories of hating them.” A mathematics class should not be intended to make a student weep from complicated equations, but it should encourage them to seek the numbers surrounding
Mathematics education has undergone many changes over the last several years. Some of these changes include the key concepts all students must master and how they are taught. According to Jacob Vigdor, the concerns about students’ math achievements have always been apparent. A few reasons that are negatively impacting the productivity of students’ math achievements are historical events that influenced mathematics, how math is being taught, and differentiation of curriculum.
In a musty and bleak portable classroom outside of Henry Clay High School, younger me sat and tried to understand the hardest foreign language of all, math. But this tutoring session was different, I was finally going to have a breakthrough and understand something in mathematics.
...occupying their minds with irrelevant things that do not pertain to the task at hand (Vassilaki, 2006). Thus, their energy is wasted when it could be used for task elaboration or to help improve their overall academic performance. Students with academic anxiety are self engrossed and lead to their own academic demise. Test anxiety does not only affect a students performance on a test, but Huberty (2009) asserts that test anxiety overtime tends to contribute to more common underachievement. He describes the consequences of constant test anxiety including lowered self-esteem, reduced effort, and loss of desire to complete school tasks. Students who have academic anxiety also have a higher risk of developing depression, and often feel deprived of confidence (Cunningham, 2008). Thus, academic anxiety can become extreme, and have negative effects of students’ well being.
Most teachers in the past have taught mathematics through procedural lessons. Procedural lessons consist of having the students work with a concept over and over again until it is memorized. For example, children could be given homework assignments with the equation three times five over and over again until that equation is memorized. Anytime these children saw three times five, they would instantly know the answer is fifteen without missing a beat. Once memorized, the teacher will move onto other concepts, and the children continue learning. While this may sound like a solid method for teaching, there remains one underlying problem that most children will never learn through this method; why? Why i...
Wu, Y. (2008). Experimental Study on Effect of Different Mathematical Teaching Methodologies on Students’ Performance. Journal of Mathematics Studies. Vol 1(1) 164-171.
Breaking down tasks into smaller, easier steps can be an effective way to teach a classroom of students with a variety of skills and needs. In breaking down the learning process, it allows students to learn at equal pace. This technique can also act as a helpful method for the teacher to analyze and understand the varying needs of the students in the classroom. When teaching or introducing a new math lesson, a teacher might first use the most basic aspects of the lesson to begin the teaching process (i.e. teach stu...
As a secondary subject, society often views mathematics a critical subject for students to learn in order to be successful. Often times, mathematics serves as a gatekeeper for higher learning and certain specific careers. Since the times of Plato, “mathematics was virtually the first thing everyone has to learn…common to all arts, science, and forms of thought” (Stinson, 2004). Plato argued that all students should learn arithmetic; the advanced mathematics was reserved for those that would serve as the “philosopher guardians” of the city (Stinson, 2004). By the 1900s in the United States, mathematics found itself as a cornerstone of curriculum for students. National reports throughout the 20th Century solidified the importance of mathematics in the success of our nation and its students (Stinson, 2004). As a mathematics teacher, my role to educate all students in mathematics is an important one. My personal philosophy of mathematics education – including the optimal learning environment and best practices teaching strategies – motivates my teaching strategies in my personal classroom.
Mathematics is a school subject that people have mixed feeling about. Many of my personal friends complain about math and express their dislike and hatred towards the subject. I, on the other hand, seem to enjoy math most of the time. Although I sometimes feel angry when I continue to get a certain problem incorrect, I always put my best effort into finding my mistake and fixing it. I have had some amazing math teachers, but I’ve also had some very bad ones. I think that my teacher has a huge effect upon how well I will learn that subject, which can be considered good or bad. I have always realized that math is a very important topic, so I have consistently worked very hard to learn it. My current math course is strengthening my basic mathematics
Throughout out this semester, I’ve had the opportunity to gain a better understanding when it comes to teaching Mathematics in the classroom. During the course of this semester, EDEL 440 has showed my classmates and myself the appropriate ways mathematics can be taught in an elementary classroom and how the students in the classroom may retrieve the information. During my years of school, mathematics has been my favorite subject. Over the years, math has challenged me on so many different levels. Having the opportunity to see the appropriate ways math should be taught in an Elementary classroom has giving me a
A somewhat underused strategy for teaching mathematics is that of guided discovery. With this strategy, the student arrives at an understanding of a new mathematical concept on his or her own. An activity is given in which "students sequentially uncover layers of mathematical information one step at a time and learn new mathematics" (Gerver & Sgroi, 2003). This way, instead of simply being told the procedure for solving a problem, the student can develop the steps mainly on his own with only a little guidance from the teacher.