When it came to picking my elective for second year I was extremely hesitant to choose Maths. I thought it would be so interesting, however a part of me could not get over my original fear of maths itself – a fear most people share and have had from a very early age.
As a primary school kid, I went through some states trying to complete my maths homework and failing to understand what it was that I was doing wrong. It would constantly cause arguments with my dad, who was trying to help, because his way of solving a maths problem was different to the way I had been taught. I imagine kids today would look at my way of learning and agree that their way of learning is significantly different too. This is what makes the approach teachers take so important as it can significantly affect the child’s confidence and ability in maths.
Despite this, every time I think of maths I am reminded of those nights spent in tears over my maths homework fearing I had done it wrong. As a training teacher, this is a feeling I hope my pupils never go through. Every day children learn new things and so do adults.
It would be hard to find someone who could honestly say maths hasn’t scared them once in their life because the reality is that everyone has a small fear of it. I believe this can stem from lacking basic knowledge of concepts which therefore inhibits a pupils’ ability to understand how to complete a task. Often, if the topic is broken down into small bits a child will know how to do most of it but because they can’t yet grasp one aspect of it, they say they can’t do maths. This is where it is vital that we provide the support necessary for pupils to develop confidence and understanding in maths. Maths is essential for everyday life and because of this it is vital that we find a way to avoid children fearing it.
The University of Cambridge (2017a) discusses maths anxiety and how it can affect a child. Maths anxiety can affect pupils ability to develop skills in maths as it causes significant fear when the subject is mentioned. There are numerous things that could contribute to math anxiety however a large factor that could cause maths anxiety is that the child has encountered embarrassment and failure within maths so now associates it with fear (Joseph, 2017). The University of Cambridge (2017b) released data showing that if a child has poor maths skills they are more likely to suffer from maths anxiety and if pupils have maths anxiety, their ability to complete maths problems will decrease significantly. I believe that maths anxiety can be avoided or overcome by taking the right approach to teaching maths. Maths can, and should be fun. Instead of associating it with textbooks and texts we should associate it with fun and activity.
As I said at the start of this blog, I was so scared to take this module however after one lecture I soon realised that I was not the only person who had this fear of maths, we learn something new every day and that with the right approach and knowledge, maths doesn’t need to be scary…
Oh, and I learnt what an angle was… at the age of 18.
References:
Joseph, A. (2017) Sciencing. Available at: https://sciencing.com/definition-math-anxiety-5666297.html (Accessed: 14 September 2018).
The University of Cambridge. (2017a) Maths Anxiety. Available at: https://www.cne.psychol.cam.ac.uk/people/themes/ma (Accessed: 14 September 2018).
The University of Cambridge. (2017b) The relationship between maths anxiety and maths performance. Available at: https://www.cne.psychol.cam.ac.uk/the-relationship-between-maths-anxiety-and-maths-performance (Accessed: 14 September 2018).
