Greetings Educators and Parents/Families!
I want to discuss math anxiety/attitudes because it is a serious issue within education. Mathematics is one of the basic content areas students are to learn at its foundation and progress throughout their education. Students are to be able to develop critical thinking and problem solving skills of mathematics and apply them effectively when assessed and in real world contexts. However, in as early as first grade, students have developed math anxiety—a real, deep rooted fear of mathematics with physical symptoms such as heavy breathing, sweating, headaches, increased heartbeat, and more.
During this current change in education, some students are not receiving the traditional math education they may thrive in therefore developing gaps in their math knowledge and realizing their math abilities are not necessarily where they should be. However, we can still continue the focus of decreasing or even eliminating students’ math anxiety by instilling a growth mindset and use of online learning resources.
Last week Thursday, I led a presentation with the EC teacher of an online school to help parents and families understand math anxiety and how it affects the student and how having a growth mindset should be the goal. It was a successful presentation that brought about understanding, tools for change, and a sense of hope in the midst of this pandemic.
Math anxiety/attitudes was an area I researched during my doctoral studies in 2013 and also conducted further research in relation to how online learning tools supplement to students‘ traditional math instruction can assist in reducing math anxiety and negative attitudes towards math.
If you are a parent who has a student struggling in math (PreK-8) or you’re a math educator who needs support in working with your struggling students, please take the opportunity to receive a FREE 15-minute consultation so we can work as a team to reduce or eliminate this fear of math that is stifling your student’s success.
Please share or comment. I look forward to helping you.
