A is for Anxiety
By Dr Deborah Cameron-Flitcroft (Educational Psychologist) and Scott Cameron-Flitcroft (KS5 Coordinator for Mathematics)
“Teachers, parents, brothers and sisters and classmates can all play a role in shaping a child’s maths anxiety. Parents and teachers should also be mindful of how they may unwittingly contribute to a child’s maths anxiety. Tackling their own anxieties and belief systems in maths might be the first step to helping their children or students" Dr Ros McLellan as part of of the Cambridge University report on Understanding Mathematics Anxiety: Investigating the experiences of UK primary and secondary school students.
Maths is the only subject in the national curriculum with its own specific form of anxiety and from my experience this appears to be a growing area of concern in math classrooms and one of the major reasons for difficulties with maths.
In maths more than any other subject, there is the possibility that pupils will experience answers being judged absolutely right or wrong. For pupils whose attainment is low, the effect of this might be that they frequently experience having their work returned with low marks and crosses. Pupils have reported to me how they feel “stupid” in lessons.
Pupils become anxious about the subject or the question they are working on, this impacts on their cognitive load and leaves little room for learning. This leads to pupils feeling overwhelmed and causes them to get the question wrong or perceive they are stupid leading to further anxiety about the subject and the cycle continues and potentially further increases the level of anxiety. The concerning thing about this is that the individual maybe under achieving due to being a victim of stress rather than an ability in the subject. It is thought that pupils as young as six can start to suffer from maths anxiety.
So what can we do to help? The main priority is ensuring pupils experience success in maths lessons. This can be achieved by starting them on tasks you know they will succeed in. I know time can be difficult when teaching the national curriculum but 5 minutes of working on a previously known task will continue to support mastery but will also support their views on themselves as a maths learner.
It is important to notice when a pupil is becoming anxious and reflect and support them through this. Pupils are unable to learn when they are in state of fight or flight caused by anxiety. It is important to support the young person to regulate this and praise any effort or perseverance with the task. Avoid any negative comments as task avoidance may be a behaviour in order to protect their sense of self.
As much as classrooms are for learning, where possible a sense of fun for the subject is needed. Even if it is a quick game at the end of the week. There is an ever growing societal view that maths is hard and boring. As practitioners its important we support the changing of this narrative.
Reflections of a Teacher
I am all too aware of how the above can impact teachers, it can almost be an elephant in the room. I have certainly struggled with pupils in the past appearing to give up or give answers that have nothing to do with the question.
I always start my lessons with a MathsBox 5/10 question starter. These questions generally stay the same topic for a half term and I find the predictability helps reduce their anxiety and settles them into the lesson. Most pupil’s don’t get all questions completed but I will always spend a small amount of time going through ones they struggle with. It can take time to build an environment where it is okay to ask, initially whilst I walk round I pick up some key points and go through those but eventually pupils are happy to share. MathsBox is all set up for this and if you don’t have a subscription to it I really can’t recommend it high enough.
I try an create a safe learning environment where not knowing the answer or making a mistake is okay. I will sometimes purposefully make mistakes in my own working out in front of the class to show how even teachers are human. I think mini whiteboards are a teachers best friend as low stake WB questions gives pupils a chance to try before they commit to paper. Pupils in my class are encouraged to put a question mark if they don’t know the answer and there is no shame or embarrassment for this in my classroom.
In terms of “fun” my line to the pupils when they asked “Are we doing anything fun today?” used to be “I’m not a kids entertainer”. However there is no reason why things can’t be fun but also useful. I have been using some of GoTeachMaths “Teacher Led Activities” to add some competition and fun to my classes. My Year 11s love MathsVegas, which is not Blackjack or Poker, pupils are in teams of 4 and start with 1000 points. They then get a topic title, like expanding double brackets, they can “gamble” up to half their total based on how confident they are. They then get 4 questions and everyone must do 1 question on their whiteboard (no hogs or logs). They need to get at least 3 out of 4 correct to “win” double what they put in. I find this group task helps reduce the anxiety as they get help from their peers. I reward good coaching with extra points for the team, and I remove points if someone is just doing it for them. This has helped to create a safe environment for them to learn from each other, you just need to be careful to listen out for misconceptions being shared as facts.
