Maths anxiety calculated!

Maths anxiety is an overwhelming tension and fear of mathematical problems and this could be in an academic situation or in normal day to day life. This anxiety may be triggered by timed tests that exert pressure on students taking up such tests or excessive authority imposed by teachers leading to such intense form of anxiety. This anxiety results in the child avoiding the subject entirely or lacking the will to tackle problems. This would lead to poor understanding of the concepts and an inability to perform in tests causing an increase in maths anxiety.

What defines maths anxiety is that it is an emotional reaction towards mathematical concepts that ultimately leads to poor grades and long term in adequacy in the subject. The level of maths anxiety can be assessed using maths anxiety tests that are available. These will help in understanding the anxiety level which can be used analyse the reasons behind the anxiety and ways to curb it. Many maths anxiety tests are available online and these are self administered and easy to understand and therefore prove to be very useful.

Maths anxiety in elementary children is a common form of anxiety that is noticed among children. The traditional maths classroom exerts pressure on the student to perform and excel. Most often students are asked to walk up to the black board to complete mathematical solutions to problems, this adds to the anxiety where the student has to perform under full glare of the rest of the class. Nervousness and lack of confidence could lead to an inability to perform such tasks, aggravating the child's maths anxiety and building an aversion towards the entire subject.

Maths has always been a subject, that many claim, is one that requires ability. When some students in the class solve problems with a lot more ease than others, an added pressure is exerted on those who are unable to solve them with similar ease. This creates a sense of self doubt and embarrassment that many students find it hard to cope with. As a result, classes on maths are deemed boring or hard and a mental fixture about maths is created resulting in long term aversion.

Many students of maths focus more on remembering the various steps and procedures that are involved in solving the problems rather than actually understanding the concept. This is a tricky situation as the basic concepts of the subject are not understood and remembering steps is a difficult task. When a step is forgotten, it leads to panic and complete blankness about how to proceed further in solving the problem. This intensifies maths test anxiety due to poor understanding. Lack of good conceptual knowledge may be due to improper teaching methods that are followed. Most traditional maths classroom do not promote understanding of the concepts in maths and result in rote learning of steps, like in any other text based subject. As memorizing the various steps has been the only method of learning for many without questioning or understanding why a particular method is used to solve a problem, a minor slip in memory during a test could result in an inability to solve the problem. Those with good memory will continue to do well but are technically still weak in maths as the basic concepts have not been understood. As a great dependency on memory is required while resorting to such study methods, there is an added stress that is caused and this leads to maths anxiety.

Maths anxiety is generally expressed as complete dread for the subject coupled with extreme nervousness before tests. Most often panic and frustration is experienced during test taking as an inability to remember the various step is encountered during tests. Stomach cramps and sleep less nights are endured days before the tests and the nervousness and tension remains even after the tests have been taken.

There are many misconceptions that have been associated with maths and this has promoted maths anxiety in elementary children. Maths has mostly been considered to be a male subject and female counterparts have always been expected to find maths difficult. This leads many female students to develop maths anxiety as they feel they are less 'tuned' for the subject. Since maths has always been placed on a high pedestal, there is a general notion that mathematical concepts are difficult for the general population to understand. This heightens the fear and apprehensions associated with learning maths and causes maths anxiety.

Maths anxiety may be overcome by providing good, sound understanding of the basic concepts that encourages the student to dwell further into the subject and appreciate problem solving. Teachers and parents would need to pay greater detail into conceptual learning that focuses more on student understanding than mere memorizing. Students should be encouraged to try new problems and their questions should be entertained in order to open the doorway for a better understanding of the subject. Students should not be deterred by mistakes and should be persistent in their process for achieving success in maths problem solving skills.

Maths anxiety can also be treated with hypnosis that is available online. This maths anxiety hypnosis that is online can be used to overcome excessive anxiety and encourage better acceptability of the concepts. There are many sites that offer this service and some of them provide CDs for a price.

Maths anxiety can be effectively controlled and a positive attitude encouraged with the right support and help from teachers and parents.

Continue to: Tips on Treating Anxiety In Children

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