Math Anxiety: Why it is Important

It's the day of your exam. You're palms get sweaty and your heart is racing as you flip through your notes, hoping that reading over them one more time will make them stick to your memory. You know you've got time to slow down and truly comprehend the material, but you're too anxious to bring yourself to do just that. You're back in high school and have an algebra exam coming up next class period. You are so focused and worried about it that there is little to no hope for learning to occur in your current class. Finally, you get to the exam just to find your mind blank as you helplessly stare at the squiggly lines and operations symbols in front of you. But you studied for days; there's no way you could be this unprepared for the test. All that studying and worry, all just to leave that classroom feeling helpless and like a failure. 

This is the sad reality for many students when it comes to math. The idea of having to understand and solve math problems leaves them stressed and worried. This feeling is known as "Math Anxiety," and it is way more common than people think. According to EducationWeek.org, 67% of math teachers reported that math anxiety was a challenge for their students, with even 25% of them saying they have, at times, felt anxiety while doing math themselves. I would classify myself amongst these groups, which is ironic since I am going to college for Math Education. I, myself, have felt like that student in my introduction more often than not.

Most people would assume that a student struggling with severe math anxiety would do poorly in math courses, but that is surprisingly not the case. Another study done by EducationWeek.org states that 4 out of 5 students struggling with math anxiety are average-to-high math performers. Based on that, we can conclude that the issue isn't really a fear of having to do math, but rather a fear of failure and being judged on your understanding of the subject. Students like me were so worried about getting the problem wrong that it was the only thing occupying their thoughts when it came time to do the math. This problem is more relevant in math than in any other subject because of others' attitudes towards the subject. Most kids grow up being told by parents and peers that math is hard and can even be scary. They are also told that math is useless to most people. The combination of these factors leads to kids being scared of the subject that they have been led to believe is hard and worthless. 

A common belief is that math anxiety is caused by the lack of preparation for a quiz/exam. While true, lack of preparation will lead to anxiety, but this isn't the largest cause of math anxiety. Based on my own experience, I suffer from it just as much prepared as I do unprepared. A belief I hold is that it is the other way around. Math anxiety actually causes unpreparedness. I dealt with anxiety not only while taking a quiz/exam, but also while I was studying for it. I confused worrying and stressing about it, with worthwhile studying. I was exhausting myself going through problems and looking over the material, all while in a constant state of stress and anxiety. Due to this, I, as well as many students like me, don't even realize that all the effort is going to waste. They study and study and study only to find they didn't actually comprehend or hold onto any of the material they were sure they knew before. 

The most difficult part of this discussion is how to help "fix" this issue. While this issue is not a one-size-fits-all, I believe there is a big step we can take to help reduce the problem of math anxiety. That step being that we must try our hardest to change people's attitudes toward math. This job doesn't solely land on math teachers' shoulders. When students come home and hear phrases like "I'm not a math person" or "I've always been bad at math," students are led to believe they either have what it takes to be successful in math or they don't. This changes students' mindsets towards math classes from a space to learn about math to a space to prove that you are good at math. This is where the fear of failure comes into play. Students have the mindset that if they don't perform well on a test/quiz, they are just like everyone they've ever heard say they are bad at math. Once we change the narrative that math is a journey, not a race or competition, students will finally be allowed to showcase their true ability, and they'll be able to do that in a stress-free, math anxiety-free space. 

"Why do we need this anyways?

     The way math is taught has changed plenty throughout the years, with new discoveries, new technologies, and new educational requirements. Even with those differences, there is one experience that all math teachers have, and that is answering the age old question, “Why do we have to learn this anyways?” Telling kids that they “simply must” never works, so what are we to say? Most of my teachers told us we will need it for college, for work, and just for everyday life. But the most memorable answer I received was, “You may not ever need this. If a stranger runs up to you and asks you to solve an algebraic expression, you should run. But at least you are learning valuable problem solving skills.” All these answers, however, seemed vague to me. As the impressionable teenager I was, their vague answers did not exactly pique my interest in my studies of mathematics. In fact, it made me think they mattered even less. The issue here is that what all those teachers said is true. Math learned, especially in secondary school, is used for college, work, and simply growing those necessary skills. Those things, however, really do matter, so how do we make students understand that? I think math lessons need to include more realistic, everyday examples. I mean, who’s buying eighty-six bottles of dish soap? Another idea that could be useful would be dedicating a day to explaining the usefulness of math. This could look like an activity day, or maybe even guest speakers. Once a student knows why it is so important, I’d wager that they’ll be more inclined to take their mathematic studies more seriously.