The Causes and Prevention of Math Anxiety

Mathematics anxiety has been defined as 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. Math anxiety can cause one to
forget and lose one’s self-confidence (Tobias, 2003).
Research confirms that pressure of timed tests and risk or public embarrassment
has long been recognized as courses of unproductive tension among many students.
Three practices that are a regular part of the traditional mathematics classroom and cause
great anxiety in many students are imposed authority, public exposure, and time
deadlines. Although these are a regular part of the traditional mathematics classroom,
they cause a great anxiety. Therefore, teaching methods must be re-examined.
Consequently, there should be more emphasis on teaching methods which include
less lecture, more student directed classes and more discussion.
Given the fact that many students experience math anxiety in the traditional
classroom, teachers should design classroom that will make children feel more
successful. Students must have a high level of success or a level of failure that they can
tolerate. Therefore, incorrect responses must be handled in a positive way to encourage
student participation and enhance student confidence.
Studies have shown that students learn best when they are active rather than
passive learners (Spikell, 1993). The theory of multiple intelligences addresses the
different learning styles. Lessons are presented for visual/spatial, logical/mathematics,
musical, body kinesthetic, interpersonal and intrapersonal, and verbal/linguistic.
Everyone is capable of learning, but may learn in different ways. Therefore, lessons must
be presented in a variety of ways. For example, different ways to teach a new concept can
be through play acting, cooperative groups, visual aids, hands-on activities and
technology. Learners are different from what they were forty years ago. These learners
today ask questions why or that way and why not this way, whereas years ago learners
did not question the why of math concepts; they simply memorized and mechanically
performed the operations needed.
Students today have a need for practical Math. Therefore, Math needs to be
relevant to their everyday lives. Students enjoy experimenting. To learn mathematics,
students must be engaged in exploring, conjecturing, and thinking rather than engaged
only in rote learning of rules and procedures.
Students’ prior negative experiences in math class and at home when learning
math are often transferred and cause a lack of understanding of mathematics. According
to Sheila Tobias, millions of adults are blocked from professional and personal
opportunities because they fear or perform poorly in mathematics. These negative
experiences remain throughout their adult lives.
 Math is often associated with pain and frustration. For instance, unpaid bills,
unforeseen debts are a few of the negative experiences associated with numbers. Parents
should show their children how numbers are successfully used by them in positive
pleasant ways, such as in buying, cooking, sewing, sports, problem solving in hobbies,
and home repairs. Math must be looked upon in a positive light to reduce anxiety. A
person’s state of mind has a great influence on his/her success.
With all the tension and anxiety, Math humor is greatly needed. Young children
enjoy cartoons and jokes. Cartoons may be used to introduce a concept for class
discussion. Most children will master mathematical concepts and skills more readily if
they are presented first in concrete, pictorial and symbols. For example manipulatives are
concrete objects used to teach a concept. By using manipulatives, pictures and symbols to
model or represent abstract ideas, the stage is set for young learners to understand the
abstractions they represent. Students enjoy the change from lecture and books and they
are more inclined to explore with manipulatives and show greater interest in class work.
Cooperative groups provide students a chance to exchange ideas, to ask questions
freely, to explain to one another, to clarify ideas in meaningful ways and to express
feelings about their learning. These skills acquired at an early age will be greatly
beneficial throughout their adult working life.
Houston J. Banks defines problem as a quantitative situation described in words
requiring a quantitative answer in which the arithmetical operations required are not
provided.
From the definition of a problem by Banks, it is understood that before one could
make computations to arrive at the answer of a problem, he needs to master a lot of
reflective, analytical, and critical thinking tills.
Although Spitzer and Flournoy in their article, “Developing Facility in Solving
Verbal Problems” have asserted that problem solving cannot be taught as a skill, since the
conditions in verbal problems dealing with social situations usually vary from problem to
problem and that the learner’s ability to solve problems depends on his intelligence, his
reading ability, his understanding of number operations, and his background of
experience, several methods of teaching problem solving have surfaced to help pupils
master the skills necessary to solve a word problem.
According to Butler, efforts have been made and experiments have been carried
out to try to determine which of the following method is best for teaching problem
solving:
1. The Restatement Methods. In this method, the pupils are asked to restate
each problem in their own words as a means of clarifying the problem.

2. The Analysis Method. Effort is made to have the pupils systematically

analyze the problem by requiring them to go through a sequence of steps. For this
purpose, the simplified steps as advanced by De Lara are considered as follows:
 a. Read the problem. This looks simple but to read the problem, one has to
read it carefully and slowly. Unfamiliar words should be looked into and
their meanings sought.
b. Know the problem. To know the problem is to ask one’s self:
(1) What facts/data are given? And
(2) What is asked in the problem?
c. Plan how to solve the problem. The following, questions should be asked:
(1) What operation is to be used?
(2) What is the number sentence? And
(3) What is the name of the answer?
d. Solve the problem. This includes performing the operation which has been
translated into a number sentence. Check the answer.

3. The Method of Analogies. Here, the pupil is given a simple oral problem
similar to but shorter than the more difficult problem.

4. The Method of Dependencies. The pupil is taught to recognize and focus on

fundamental dependence relation existing among elements in the problem
under consideration. This is, in fact, the central core of the analysis method
mentioned above.

5. The Graphing Method. The pupil is taught to use some graphic or

diagrammatic scheme to help him identify the elements of the problem and formulate an
explicit statement of their relations to each other. This method is rather especially helpful
because it exhibits the problems visually and thus makes the relations easier to detect and
formulate.
Each of the foregoing methods described has its own merits and advantages as
well as its own weaknesses. It cannot be said categorically that one method is better or
more superior than the other. Not one method could therefore be singled out to be the
best method in solving word problems. It all depends on what method works best for the
pupils.
Form classroom experiences, however, the eclectic method has shown to be an
effective one. This means that a combination of two or more of the methods could be
resorted to in order to have better results.