I recently had a lecture on Discovering Mathematics, which introduced us to the idea of mathematics anxiety (MA) and how many children (and adults) may suffer from it. This term was something I had never come across before but felt I could definitely relate to and so I decided to read a little more into it.

Mathematics anxiety is an emotional response to maths that professionals in both education as well as psychology being defined as “a feeling of tension and anxiety that interferes with the manipulation of numbers and the solving of mathematical problems in ordinary life and academic situation”. As maths plays such a big role in a child’s education this is something I believe all educators should be aware of in order to meet their students needs.

However something that I found very surprising was that this response is not necessarily restricted to a school setting. In fact many people who suffered from maths anxiety in school chose to avoid any kind of career that would involve any element of mathematics. This was quite shocking to me as maths is all around us and is almost completely unavoidable; basic daily actions require some sense of maths.

I came across a project which is being carried out by 3 researchers from the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford; this study will focus on how to understand mathematics anxiety. The researchers began their study on 1st October 2013 and is on-going with the end date being 30th April 2016.

The predictions for the project are that it will make people more aware of MA, allowing educators to provide the correct support that sufferers require.

Thanks to my further reading of the topic I have realised that as a child I suffered from MA and thanks to my school i was able to cope with maths throughout my education. However some people are not so lucky. I hope that this project provides a people with a better understanding and make maths an enjoyable and fun subject, rather than causing a negative emotional response.

References

Understanding Mathematics Anxiety (no date) Available at: http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/understanding-mathematics-anxiety (Accessed at: 11 November 2015).