Homeschool Math Blog

UPDATED! I pretty much rewrote an old article of mine that lists some of the major factors that contribute to math anxiety in students and gives helpful ideas for teachers to motivate children. This is how it starts: A major factor in the development of math anxiety and dislike towards math in students is the way the teachers feel about math. It is well known that good teachers love the subject they are teaching. On the other hand, if the teacher feels negative towards math, it probably shows up when in his or her teaching and affects the students similarly. So one very important factor in motivating children to study math is that you as the teacher stay positive about math – if possible, enthusiastic! Now, that may be hard if you feel differently. As an adult, you can analyze your past experiences, beliefs, and feelings, and work consciously to change those. If you really hate math, you can also explain to your child (if she's older) how you feel, where and h...

Photo courtesy of Wecometolearn Updated! 7 Reasons behind Math Anxiety and How to Prevent It This article lists some of the major factors that contribute to math anxiety in students and gives helpful ideas for teachers to motivate children to study math and to prevent math anxiety. Including: - how teachers feel about math - whether mistakes are valued or not - tests and especially timed tests - whether math is presented to be a creative subject or not ... and more! Check it out!

Again, I want to share some thoughts from the How to Learn Math course by Jo Boaler I took recently -- this time about how timed tests and speed affect students in mathematics learning and their "ability" to make mistakes : ). You see, all of our brains actually GROW and make new connections when we make mistakes and think about them. There is no brain growth if you can just sail through a problem set! That is why it is so important for our students to make mistakes -- and then we need to VALUE those mistakes and help them learn from them. People with so-called fixed mindset are usually afraid of making mistakes. We need our students (and ourselves!) to have a GROWTH mindset - the attitude that I'm not perfect nor smart already, but making mistakes helps me learn and grow my brain . Jo has written a book, What's Math Got to Do with It?: How Parents and Teachers Can Help Children Learn to Love Their Least Favorite Subject . I do not have it... but ba...

This is a very interesting piece of research, and I personally believe in this "effect": that a teacher's attitude towards math can easily be passed on to his/her students. In this case, all the teachers studied were elementary and female. I figure the same could happen with male teachers too, affecting boys, if the teacher feared and/or disliked math. It's just a lot less likely because most elementary teachers are female, and also because math anxiety is more common among females. Girls may learn math anxiety from female teachers The article also points to the best solution: the elementary teachers need trained much better in math so they can teach it confidently, including teaching the concepts and the 'why's of math. Elsewhere: Girls inheriting math anxiety from female teachers? at Casting Out Nines