4Real Forums: Math Anxiety

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Topic: Math Anxiety

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Elizabeth
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Joined: Jan 20 2005
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Posted: Feb 20 2007 at 11:17am \| IP Logged

Math anxiety saps working memory.. So, since standardized tests are an inevitable part of life, how do we help our children get past math anxiety?

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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)

ALmom
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Joined: May 18 2005
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Posted: Feb 20 2007 at 8:29pm \| IP Logged

In tutoring situations, I always found that positive comments and leading questions one at a time on a very small part, one little thought step at a time (Ie I would ask a question stepping students through the problem until they suddenly realized they had, in fact, solved the problem themselves) helped the students build confidence. It seemed to me that everyone I worked with was good at math, they simply didn't think they were and would freeze. I said this over and over to my tutoring students and knew I'd reached them when they no longer needed me. It took some time to build their confidence to the point that they stopped thinking they were dumb in math. Math is probably one of the worst places to do a lot of rushing/pushing because of the phobia that seems to develop. Always set them up for success. Success is the best builder of liking something and also realizing that you can do it.

As far as getting ready for SAT or ACT type tests, familiarity is half the battle. You don't have to sign up for the classes they are talking about - just do tons and tons of problems that are like the ones they'll see and make sure to help them step through them several times. This is basically what the tutors in those prep classes are doing anyways. Also - little strategies like finding the easiest way - not necessarily the long involved calculations you tend to do in a real math problem without multiple choice. A lot of times you can eliminate a few obvious misfits just looking, if you are thinking. The problem is if you see this for the first time and then freeze. When a child has done this type of thing over and over and sees that they are not falling apart on practice tests, they go in with less stress and then do better. (If you are math phobic yourself and afraid you won't know how to step them through problems, perhaps trade skills with someone else. I'd gladly tutor math for someone who would do either PE or music/dance with my dc).

Janet

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