Have you ever had math anxiety? If so, you are not alone. Many people report having math anxiety, and expressing it can affect your children.
Parental beliefs are contagious
Studies have shown that parents who express anxiety while helping their children with math reduce their children’s performance in first and second grade. When mothers informed their daughters that they were not good at math, the daughters’ math work decreased.
It’s not just the parents
Teachers’ math anxiety has been shown to negatively affect girls’ math performance. In one study, the more anxious primary school teachers were, the more likely the girls in their classes were infected with the stereotype that girls were not good at math, and girls’ math performance was significantly affected. measurable. The boys in her classes were unaffected.
Why is math anxiety a problem?
Math anxiety affects math performance. Math anxiety can have a disruptive effect on working memory, which is needed to tackle math problems. When a child is preoccupied with fearful and apprehensive thoughts, his brain is not fully focused on the challenging task at hand, putting him at a distinct disadvantage that affects his learning. This is particularly common when children are given timed tests.
Higher level math will be much more important for the next generation. American students, at a minimum, typically have to take 10 years of math classes to earn a high school diploma, the least amount of education needed to get even an unskilled job in today’s job market. Lack of confidence in math leads students to avoid certain majors because higher-level math completion is required for admission. This doesn’t just apply to the obvious scientific occupations, many college business programs actually require two semesters of calculus.
As time goes on, STEM careers will become a much bigger part of the economy. The world of work will be radically transformed in short periods of time. For example, driverless cars could make taxi drivers and truckers obsolete in ten years. Uber and companies like it are already making full-time taxi driving a thing of the past. Today’s kids will need a solid foundation in STEM subjects to prepare for a job market we can’t even imagine today.
So how can parents help their children learn math more easily?
If you struggled with math or have had anxiety, please refrain from expressing it to your child. Talk positively about how math (even simple calculations) helps you in your daily life today. Praise him for all his efforts and perseverance with homework, even when he sometimes doesn’t come up with the right answer. If you are a mother with a daughter, let her know that you are confident in her ability to do well in math.
Parents can foster positive attitudes about math by emphasizing that math is just a subject that is learned with practice and persistence. There is no such thing as a “math person” and anyone can learn mathematics. Making mistakes is just a healthy part of that process, not proof of a lack of skill or intelligence. In fact, it has been shown in MRIs that making mistakes in math makes a person’s brain grow. There is no race or gender that has any special advantage when it comes to doing mathematics, those stereotypes are totally wrong.
Parents can help their children learn math by encouraging them to play math enrichment games and put together puzzles to develop number sense. Pictures like board games are especially helpful in developing a child’s understanding of math concepts. Spatial skills, understanding and remembering the spatial relationships between objects, are closely related to math skills. Studies have shown that children benefited immediately after playing a number line game similar to Snakes and Ladders, and a visual model of the positive and negative number line helped children intuitively understand how negative numbers work. The more games kids play and have fun with numbers, the less math anxiety and the more confidence they’ll have to explore math.