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This paper was written as an assignment
for Ian Walton's Math G - Math for liberal Arts Students - at Mission College. If
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Anhtai Huynh

MATH G

Professor Walton

27 April 2010

The
Perils of Math Anxiety

What
is math anxiety?

At
first, I thought math anxiety only happened to other people and not me, but as
I continued on thinking about it, I realized that it is a lot more
sophisticated yet complicated than I initially thought. As I was sitting at my
desk working out a couple of problems from the midterm take-home assignment in MATH 00G, I
began to hit obstacles – things that did not make sense to me. Some of
the questions, such as arithmetic and the Venn diagram problems, were
straightforward; however, when I got to problems such as the linear program and
cardinality, I could not process and analyze the information. I could not
answer the problem the way Professor Walton wanted the class to answer it.

Now it
might seem simple and easy for me to say just that much, but in actuality it
was extremely frustrating. I knew that this midterm take-home assignment had an
effect on my grade (like 15% of my grade), and if I did not complete it and get
a high score on it, my grade would be lowered. To my understanding, a lower
grade equates to leaning closer to failing, which is not an option for me since
I need the course to transfer over to San
Jose State University in the
fall of 2010. This created even more pressure for me to make an effort to
answer these problems, since I do not want to spend any more time in community
college.

When I
tried working out the unsolved problems, the first thing that came to my mind
was, “What the hell do I do here?” Most of the problems were
discussed in class, and I had thought I understood the material, but in
reality, I did not have experience working them out. I began to wonder whether
I really knew the material or not, because often times, we are suppose to do
our own study and reading to supplement what we learn in class. I did not
exactly do this while we discussed the topics in class. As the stress continued
to build, I looked at the paper with a blank stare, trying to start somewhere
such as looking up what “cardinality” means, referring to the steps
in linear programming or even the basic rules of arithmetic – I could not
find what I was looking for. After some hours of trying and getting nowhere, I
gave up and decided to settle for a low score of 20/55. It was not worth the
trouble or the stress to get a passing grade.

This is
what math anxiety looks like. It can happen to anyone at any point, but in
general, it is defined as “an intense emotional feeling of anxiety that
people have about their ability to understand and do mathematics,” and in
extreme cases, people develop what is known as math phobia (Math Anxiety).
People who are math anxious tend to doubt themselves in their ability to do
math with confidence, because math is generally understood to have only one
answer, and if they do not come to that answer, logically to them it means they
are incapable. Although I did not technically feel that I was incapable as a
person because of some math problems, I had intense feelings of anxiety, and it
had stressed me out and put me in a bad mood. This was when I realized that I
too could experience math anxiety.

What
causes math anxiety?

Through
my anecdote and definition, we now have a better understanding of how to
identify whether someone is experiencing math anxiety or if we are personally
experiencing it. But what exactly causes math anxiety? Who experiences math
anxiety? Can it be solved? How do we approach math anxiety from a pedagogical
point of view? These are some of the questions that I will be discussing in
this paper, and perhaps it will provide a better, worldwide view of the
subject.

On
that note, I found it very interesting that – on attempt to find sources
– many of my findings were about conquering math anxiety, as if I was
looking for a guidebook that might help me conquer mines. In fact, even two of
my book sources from the Mission College
library were about tackling math anxiety, which focused on methods and
approaches on dealing with it.

Common
Beliefs about Math

One
of the starting points of trying to understand where math anxiety stems from is
the fact that there are myths about math, myths that are not true. One of these
myths is that to be good at math, you have to be born with a “math
mind” or be mentally adept in order to handle math (Arem 16). This is not
true at all, because we all have the mental capacity to understand and work
things out, especially in everyday life where basic arithmetic is essential.
Those that believe this myth assumes that because they cannot solve a certain
problem, they are one of the few that are born without a math mind and believes
that they are inferior, weak, and incompetent (Hackworth 1). Not only is this
issue about math anxiety, it creates other issues such as low self-esteem.

Another
myth: math has a best way, or one method, to solve problems, and that the
correct answer is the only thing that matters (Coping with Math Anxiety). This
is not true, because math is more about understanding concepts and being able
to apply that knowledge than getting the right answers 100% of the time. There
are many different approaches solving a problem, and a student should not be
limited to one style just because that is how their instructor handles a
problem (Arem 16). Individuals are different in the way that they learn, but as
long as they keep practicing and seeking help, a light of understanding will
eventually reveal itself and moments of “eureka!” will occur.

As
kids and even teenagers, we might also experience the myth that we should be
able to do math in our heads as opposed to using our fingers – if we
cannot, people point out our “stupidity”. While it might increase
efficiency to be able to do math in our heads, using our fingers and other
tools indicate that we grasp the concept of arithmetic (Math Anxiety). It does
not matter the tools that we use as long as we have an understanding of what is
asked, and we are able to utilize whatever tools we have to get to that
destination. Nobody should be put-down because of a decision to use fingers to
count. It is all about using whatever methods that works.

One
last myth to mention is that men are better than women in mathematics (Arem
16). We can understand this on a more logical point of view, because women have
only recently achieved recognition and independence among their male
counter-points – within a century or two – and so naturally, some
women may still feel that men are superior at certain things. However, over the
centuries and even today, there are growing numbers of women who are well
versed with mathematics, such as “Hypatia to Amalie
Nöther to thousands of contemporary women in school and university math
departments around the globe” (Coping with Math Anxiety). Studies show
that women have the same capacity and potential to be good in math just like
men, however; this does not always turn out to be the case. There is something holding
women back in some ways, and the reason – and solution – has only
started surfacing in the 21st century. What are some of those
reasons?

Gender
Context

Women
did not always receive education throughout time until the time of the
Enlightenment, where public education is promoted through the writings of John
Locke (Thickpenny). Women were not known to be intellectually proficient
according to tradition, both secular and religious, and so girls are brought up
feeling inferior to men – especially in a difficult subject such as math.
Even as the century goes by and women are becoming more and more independent,
society today still has the traditional belief that women do not need math. As
a result, girls – especially at the young ages – do not focus on
their math and logical development of the brain, which causes them to be math
anxious later on when certain math is required in college or in the future.
This creates an on-going cycle – the more you avoid math, the more you
become math anxious.

Socially,
girls may also avoid math in fear of being associated with the term
“geek,” which often have a negative connotation to the word (Coping
with Math Anxiety). We can stem this back to the days when women were only
raised to take care of the family and to get married. This creates a lot of
pressure, even at a very young age, for women to “court” themselves
so that they could have a possible spouse and mate for life. Even in
today’s society, many teenage girls focus their time and energy in social
matters instead of academics. Biologically, girls in this age are undergoing
hormonal growth called puberty, where boys are beginning to be prominent on
their minds and vice versa. Impressing boys and avoiding bad reputations, among
other things, becomes one of their primary behaviors and focus.  Psychologically, it is undesirable to be
a “geek” or a “nerd.” Without the understanding that
being a “geek” is actually okay and irrelevant to how the courting
process works these days, girls will inevitably avoid math, increasing the
anxiety as more and more math is pushed towards them as a requirement for
higher education.

Cultural
Aspects

Living
in America today,
one of the more obvious cultural perceptions of math is that it is a hated
subject due to its difficult nature. People just avoid it altogether because,
of course, growing up as a child they questioned whether math has a useful
application or not, or that math is just “not for them.” Society
also has an impact in this aspect, because math is constantly given a bad name
not just in the media, but in the family environment as well. Children do not
get the proper positive exposure to math that some other children do in other
countries, such as Japan
(Geist).

Comapred
to Japan, American culture has a higher level of math anxiety that spur in
young children, but to narrow in on a specific group, there is evidence suggesting
that families at the poverty level suffers worse from math anxiety.
Psychologist Eugene Geist found from research and studies that families with a
lower income have a tendency to score lower on tests dealing with mathematics.
Not only does Geist finds lower scores in families with lower income, he also
finds a correlation to the child’s math anxiety with the parent’s
attitudes towards math and the highest education achieved. He used a standard
USDA free or reduced-cost lunch program to determine where the
“gap” lies, and found that students enrolled in this program did
worse in scores.  The diagram in the
following page illustrates what Geist has found in this study.

As
we observe this diagram, we can see the three distinct groups that were polled
in this study: the group that was eligible (the lower line), the group without
information (middle transparent line), and the group who were not eligible (the
highest line). This graph represents the amount of students who are enrolled in
the free lunch program as the highest group, which shows approximately how many
students are at the poverty level (Geist). According to Geist, “children
who are eligible for the USDA's free or reduced cost lunch program, regardless
of ethnicity, scored 13 points below the national average and 22 points below
those students that did not qualify for the program” (Geist). This
provides statistical data on where children stands on their mathematical
achievement, and hints at math anxiety existing in these children in families
at the poverty level.

In
terms of education, data suggests that a father’s education has a great
impact on all groups in or above the poverty level. We can examine this in the
diagram in the following page, which is also provided by Geist.

The
data can be interpreted in the way that suggest that the college-degree parents
are more likely to promote a positive math environment and encouraging for
their children to do well in math (Geist). Parents who lack a college degree
have a tendency to view math negatively, which results in children picking up
similar attitudes that creates math anxiety in the future. This is generally
related to the father’s education, which I stated before about having a
greater impact on the family. However, Geist also suggests that even though a
family can be at the poverty level, the attitudes of mothers towards math can
actually have a stronger impact in how a child develops and maintains the math
anxiety that may appear. This is suggested by the fact that a child is more
emotionally attached to their mothers, who provide all the emotional and
motivational support in a child’s endeavors (Geist).

We
know that math anxiety exists, and that it is much worse in families who have
low-income, but how does everything tie in together? Other than social
influence, why does math anxiety occur in great levels?

Pedagogical
Blame

We
can take it to the root problem – teaching styles. Traditionally, math is
thought to be a subject where only one method and one answer is the correct
approach to teaching math, however; more studies are suggesting that this
approach hinders math abilities and create math anxiety. These studies suggest
that everybody has the capacity and potential to learn, but that the road map
towards learning greatly varies in people. “Studies have shown students
learn best when they are active rather than passive learners,” which
Marilyn Phillips suggests – students learn better by engaging the
material. This does not mean engaging in the sense that students must continue
study to learn through memorization and repetition – also known as the
rote style of learning. This means constantly engaging the material in thought
and allowing mistakes to happen.

Even
though today we have an understanding that math classes – like many other
liberal arts classes – are most effective when engaging students, we
still have many institutions nation and worldwide practicing the rote procedure
(Phillips). What is the rote procedure exactly? It is simply these three basic steps:
first, a problem set is introduced; second, a solution technique is introduced;
third and lastly, the problems are practiced and repeated until it is
completely memorized and “mastered” (Mathematical Anxiety). This
method limits students in terms of creative thinking in order to solve the
problems, so as a result, the greater amount of students with different
learning abilities experience difficulty when attempting to understand
mathematical concepts. For the students who do exceptionally well on the tests,
this method does not guarantee that the students fully understand the concepts.
For all we know, they could coincidentally have a great capacity for
memorization. As a result, when asked to explain, the students struggle to
provide any real meaning behind the math, and instead provide formulas and
methods as opposed to complete understanding (Mathematical Anxiety).

Other
than the conventional method of teaching, students that taught by math anxious
instructors have a higher tendency to develop math anxiety. Often times, the
instructor’s fears and lack of comprehension of math passes onto the
students, because the students never learned how to deal with difficulty in
math in these classes (Mathematical Anxiety). As a result, the rote style
becomes a stubborn method of choice, since many of these instructors are afraid
of being called-out by the students. Not only is math anxious teachers afraid
of being wrong due to their lack of understanding, they are also afraid of the
embarrassment of ignorance. Ultimately, the students become more math-anxious
– some of which that may go on to be math teachers, which creates an
endless cycle unless something is done about it (Phillips).

Techniques
and Approaches

Today
more and more organizations worldwide are advocating the push of changing the
teaching style – but still; many classes follow the rote procedure. While
we cannot do much to change the style of curriculum individually, we can focus
on the way we personally approach math and math anxiety. For example if we are
math anxious, chances are we do not have a solid understanding of our basic
arithmetic, which includes PEMDAS, fractions, multiplication, etc. A good start
would be to sit down with workbook that focuses on math anxiety, like Conquering math anxiety: A self-help
workbook, or Math
anxiety, and work out the problems using creative and logical thinking
(Math Anxiety). Having a better understanding of the foundation of mathematic
increases the learning efficiency when moving on to higher math, such as
Algebra or Calculus. Think of it as a pyramid, where arithmetic sits at the
base. Learning math terms also contribute to success in future, higher-level
math.

Another
important aspect to consider when tackling math anxiety is being completely
aware of one’s feelings and thoughts when it comes to solving math
problems (Math Anxiety). Because anxiety can often interfere with
train-of-thoughts and create distraction and frustration, it is necessary that
there is an understanding of what is going on psychologically and
physiologically. From there, math anxious students can practice using
relaxation techniques, such as taking deep, relaxed breaths, taking a break to
recompose, asking for help as much as they need to, and practice positive
thinking (Phillips). Positive thinking will take a student a long way because,
since self-esteem may be an issue – as long as the troubled students
continually tell themselves that they can do this math, they, in fact, will be
able to do the math. We can relate this information back to the study that
Geist had done, who contribute to the children’s math anxiety to the
father and mother’s lack of positive reinforcement of the math that the
child might be struggling. Having a positive mindset proves to be an essential
tool in handling not just math anxiety, but anxiety in general.

In
conclusion, we have come to understand that society’s influence and
cultural myths have contributed to the detrimental forces of math anxiety that
exists in many people today. As a society, we need to be able to tackle this
issue not just in the study room, but also collectively as an institution of
teaching styles.  Give the students
a break when they are struggling. Reexamine the approach in how the students
are taught and are learning. And most importantly of all, create an adaptable
environment that cater to all students with different learning capabilities,
and advocate the use of positive thinking.

Works
Cited

Arem, Cynthia. Conquering math anxiety: A self-help workbook.
Belmont:

Wadsworth, Inc., 1993. Print.

"Coping with math
anxiety." Platonic realms.
Math Academy
Online, n.d. Web. 25

Apr. 2010.

Geist, Eugene. "The
anti-anxiety curriculum: combating math anxiety in the classroom." Journal of Instructional Psychology
37.1 (2010): 24+. InfoTrac Psychology
Collection. Web. 27
Apr. 2010.

Hackworth, Robert D. Math anxiety reduction. Clearwater:
H&H Publishing Compant,

Inc., 1985. Print.

"Math anxiety." Texas state university. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2010.

"Mathematical
anxiety." Wikipedia. N.p.,
4 May 2010. Web. 6 May 2010.

Phillips, Marilyn Curtain.
"The causes and prevention of math anxiety." Math

goodies.
Mrs. Glosser's Math Goodies, Inc, 12
Feb. 2010. Web. 27
Apr.

2010.

Thickpenny, Helena. "The
Enlightenment." Humanities 1B. Mission College,
W2-302.

27
Apr. 2010. Lecture.