Math as far as I can remember has always been a daunting subject for me.  Throughout my time at high school anytime I entered the math classroom this sudden fear would hit, the fear of the unknown, the fear of not being able to do the work.  And no matter how hard I tried I could not get out this mindset, year on year the anxiety growing. Haylock and Thangata (2007) discuss the anxieties people face within this subject that often leads them to underperforming.  The classroom setting and the way of assessing pupils work also plays a role in developing this feeling of panic and stress.  Therefore, as a student teacher I want to change my outlook, so I can create fun and understanding ways to teach the subject to pupils, so they achieve a profound understanding of math.

When the year of my National 5 exams finally came, the math exam was fast approaching, and my attitude of math had not changed.  It felt impossible, I spent my days going into the school to try and tackle old math papers with my teacher and friends with no positive results.  Results day came, and I found out I had failed, my anxieties with math only got worse.

I did however struggle along and manage to leave school with my National 5 math qualification.

Although I know and understand math is used in my day to day life, I’m still left stressed when faced with any math problems or the prospects of enjoying teaching math in the primary school and making it fun and relatable to the pupils within my class, so they do not grow up with a hatred towards the subject.

So now, in my second year of university, I decided to take on this module in order to change my views, mindset and open up to new ideas and learn the ‘why’ in maths and not just the ‘how’.  In school we would have a quick discussion and a few on the board examples then turned to a textbook to work on our own through multiple pages of the same sums.  Ford et al. (2005, cited in Haylock and Manning, 2014) furthers this by detailing that pupils who struggle in math begin to only understand math when following a structure or a set of rules, meaning when faced with anything new or something worded in an unfamiliar way difficulty creeps in, this impacting how they work in the classroom setting.  Whereas Johnathon is helping me understand that we as educators must make math relatable and teach it in creative way to block out any negativity towards these lessons and allow children to understand problems even when they are faced with them in a different form.

Overall, I understand the importance of math and how it is used in all our everyday lives even without us noticing it.  I feel that in time, with the help of this module my outlook will change and my barrier with this subject will come down and I will not avoid all math situations and find problems less challenging in the future.

 References

Haylock, D. and Manning, R . (2014) Mathematics Explained for Primary Teachers. London: SAGE.

Haylock, D. and Thangata, F. (2007) Key Concepts in Teaching Primary Mathematics. London: SAGE.