1. William Devine, MA, LPC MathFour.com
Learned Math Phobia: The impact on children of parents' and educators' attitude towards mathematics
William Devine, MA, LPC
MathFour.com

2. Math Anxiety - What is it?
"Math anxiety is commonly defined as a feeling of tension, apprehension, or fear that interferes with math performance.” (Ashcraft, 2002)
Shown to have a significant positive correlation with academic and test anxiety

3. DSM-V (proposed) Dyscalculia
“Difficulties in production or comprehension of quantities, numerical symbols, or basic arithmetic operations that are not consistent with the person's chronological age, educational opportunities, or intellectual abilities.”
“…significantly interferes with academic achievement or activities of daily living that require these numerical skills.”

4. Math Anxiety (cont’d) Negative impact Taxes working memory
Acts as a secondary task
Math aversive => avoid math
Fear of wrong answer => decreased attempts => learning is stalled
Fewer upper level math classes taken
In college, leads to the eventual limitation of job and career possibilities
Cycle is perpetuated
Mom, Dad, teachers pass it on
More difficult to focus
Makes students want to avoid engaging in math
Avoid taking classes when they don’t have to
Especially concerning in college where it limits career possibilities
They graduate, have children or become teachers, the cycle continues

5. Math Anxiety (cont’d) Negative Impact (cont’d)
"To protect self-worth, students who are uncertain about their ability to achieve competitively may develop strategies that deflect attention from their ability.” (Turner et. al., 2002)
“'My body language said I can’t do it’, 'my hands sweat’, 'I wanted to crawl under the desk’, 'I felt frustrated’, 'sometimes I just refused to attempt a new concept'.” (Allen, 2010)
To illustrate
The “oh no, please don’t call on me” syndrome
Acting out, class clown
Don’t call on me don’t call on me don’t call on me.
And some self reported symptoms

6. Sources of Math Anxiety
Fear of others’ reactions
scolding (teacher)
punishment or disappointment (parents)
embarrassment (peers)
Fear of failure
making a mistake or doing it differently is NOT ok
Pressure of performance
Abilities seen as natural, not necessarily “learnable”
Implication of poor aptitude
Implication of inabilities
Where does it come from?
Reaction of others when we do a math problem differently or make a mistake while trying
The pressure kids get to perform well, never mind focusing on the learning process to get them there

7. Sources of Math Anxiety
"A substantial portion of the adult population seems nervous or reluctant to pursue mathematical activity, often feeling that they will simply not be able to do it.” (Stodolsky, 1985)
Chicken or the egg?

8. Social and Interactive Influences
Society - you’re either good at math, or you’re not.
Parents - Go ask your father, I was never any good at that stuff.
Teachers - No, Billy, that’s not the way we do it.
“Math instruction dominantly assumes only one way to learn: teacher presentation followed by practice.” (Stodolsky, 1985)
The student - I’m trying really hard, why does she get mad at me?
Message from Society: You can’t do anything about it. Don’t even try.
From Parents: This is hard and I can’t do it. The kid thinks they can’t do it either.
The attitude from the teacher stifles self-confidence and creativity.
Kid feels: Confusion, feeling unsafe to explore, avoidance.

9. Far Reaching Impact
"High levels appeared in remedial mathematics and declined with more advanced study. Mathematics and science majors were predictably low in the construct. The highest levels occurred for students preparing to teach in elementary school.” (Hembree, 1990)
“This issue is of major concern to our economy, to a child’s future employment and their success in higher education.” “Creating a country of mathophobes does not bode well for us in the uncertain global economy of the future.” (Geist, 2010)
20 years ago, a study showed that out of a number of college majors including upper level science and math majors, “The highest levels occurred for students preparing to teach in elementary school.”
Head scratcher?
The second speaks for itself.

10. WHAT to Change Negative to Positive Influences It’s ok to be wrong
Talking about math early on
It’s all around us, not just in the classroom
Expressing the positive
Awareness of parent and teacher effects
Promoting creativity and autonomy in children’s exploration of math
"The words of the interviewees emphasized the fact that a caring teacher in a supportive environment who uses multiple teaching strategies to address the needs of all students is the best remedy for reducing math anxiety.” (Tchibozo, 2010)
Things that we want to change, specifically, to help math anxiety are the negative influences
READ OFF SOME POINTS

11. HOW to Change Bringing together knowledge and mainstream support
Of what to do informed by experience AND the research
Support
From those in positions to spread informed awareness
Awareness
To court AND inform the public
So what can we do about it?

12. How to Change (cont’d) Knowledge
The use of experience AND research in informing the direction of improving numeracy
Addressing math anxiety as a part of this
Research on:
working memory
scaffolding
supportive learning environments
In the school
At home
With other children
motivation and autonomy
it’s already there
Use experience AND research
There is existing research on all of these

13. How to Change (cont’d) Awareness Numeracy campaign
What would an effective one look like?
It’s already started… kind of
Talk of need for improvement in STEM
(Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics)
How do we use the momentum of STEM movement to push a community-assisting agenda regarding math anxiety?
STEM advocates are wanting more focus on math and sciences

14. Other Change Topics Training for teachers Tap the motivation
Instructional vs. Behavioral/motivational support
Tap the motivation
Use the momentum of the child’s interest
Help working memory
“Being able to increase, at virtually no cost, children’s ability to retain and manipulate information therefore offers promising prospects for application in education.” (Autin, 2012)
Offering truly instructional texts to teachers
Supporting changes conducive to creating an environment where these things can happen.

15. Works Cited
Ashcraft, M. H., (2002). Math anxiety, personal, educational, cognitive consequences. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11(5),
Autin, F., & Croizet, J.-C. (2012, March 5). Improving Working Memory Efficiency by Reframing Metacognitive Interpretation of Task Difficulty. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.
Geist, E. (2010). The Anti-Anxiety Curriculum: Combating Math Anxiety in the Classroom. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 37(1),
Hembree, R. (1990). The nature, effects, and relief of mathematics anxiety. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 21,
Stodolsky, S. S. (1985). Telling Math: Origins of Math Aversion and Anxiety. Educational Psychologist, 20(3),
Tchibozo, G., ed. (2010), Proceedings of the 2nd Paris International Conference on Education, Economy and Society, Vol. 1, Strasbourg (France): Analytrics
Turner, J.C., et.al. (2002). The Classroom Environment and Students’ Reports of Avoidance Strategies in Mathematics. Journal of Educational Psychology 94(1),