Combating Math Anxiety

“Math makes me anxious… how can I help my child if I can’t do it myself?!”

I seem to get several e-mails with regards to the above statement/question…here is my best attempt to answer….

We first need to look at the why and the how you got here.

 ask yourself….

Why do we forget what we’ve learned?

if I asked you what is:

1. What is a prime #?
2. State the transitive property
3. What is the quotient of 2/3 & 1/5
4. Use the formula for a trapezoid

How many can you answer quickly from memory…( without looking it up on google)?

How many of you felt an increase in your anxiety level just from looking at the questions?

Most of us who have seen our 30th birthday come and go may think that it is normal to forget the many things we had to know in school.

I challenge this accepted forgetful theory …

It is not just because you don’t remember…

why would all our brains ability be wasted in a time when we did not have the sense to keep & use what we painstakingly attained.  Why would I now be rendered forgetful and seemingly useless when I have just come out of the 13 – 25 blur?

I am not resigning myself to this, and neither should you.

We don’t forget, it is in your brain somewhere locked away.  No meaningful connection was attached to it so why would you use that information.  Your brain not wanting to waste valuable synapse energy, just allowed the path to it to become dusty and unclear.  But make no mistake, it is in there.

I set out to prove my point and researched this topic to death… and then did a little more, and I am still learning.  Here is the nutshell thus far:

Our brains detest isolated facts….surprisingly most of our mathematical learning is done without:

•  meaningful learning associated (learned in isolation)
• the concept has been developed without reasoning or reasonable explanation ( this is the way you do it… because the math gods on the mountain said so…)
• connections have not been made

In learning & now teaching (fyi, just because you don’t homeschool does not mean that you are not teaching) we need to emphasize meaning and understanding.  Not memorization.

but that is what math is… memorization, right?

wrong…

We need to see math as:

•  a study in patterns and relationships
• a way of thinking
• an art
• a language
• a tool

instead we, the majority seem to have been taught math as confusing facts and skills that we need memorize.  We fail to see the orderliness and consistency in doing mathematics and thinking mathematically.

(you have just allowed your brain to sit in compliance and sluggishness and relative inactivity that you now think that this is the way your brain is, like you were made in a factory and  the brain umpa lumpas gave you the one that just had the math understanding part left out. )

Our brains love logic… when we have memorized math without understanding this creates a gaping anxiety gorge.

How do you build a bridge over the gorge?

Firstly, understand that anxiety will not go away on its own.  you are going to have to accept you have it( or your child), and combat it with a change in your attitude (you can not change your child’s… you have to just work on yours!) as well as understanding.

 MATH IS EVERYDAY & FOR EVERYBODY

If you show enjoyment and a positive attitude (even when you don’t feel like it) then so will your learner.  here is a hint* if you are not able to fake it and you are dragging feet, better to put it down and come back to it at a later time than to push ahead and get it done*

take it upon yourself to do math everyday.  Find problems and work them out.

when no one is looking give yourself the “are you smarter than a 5th grader” go and check out this skill builder site

www.internet4classrooms.com/index.htm/

or pick up an old text book on college pre-algebra and try working the problems out. 

Now when we are working with our children remember what was lacking in your understanding of math is the connections.

What are these connections?  If I did not have them how am I too make them?

 connections help relate math ideas and the real world.

start with seeking to understanding the rules, I find this to help eradicate the accepted myth of the math gods on the mountain tops.

for example, ask yourself what are the rules of multiplication? …….(theme of jeopardy is playing in my head)……. …… …… ……. ……. ……

ok, times up… answers please….

we multiply:

1. digit to digit
2. place value to place value

oh, so that is why when we have a 3digit number we move over…        

After you are familiar with rules, try understanding them through exploration.  Telling your kiddos the answer, or how to do it doesn’t work, this is just memorization.  No true conceptual understanding has been created.  Teach, learn through exploration of the concept.

What does exploration look like?

This is where we create meaningful learning.  This is where we have fun with math.  This is the jumping off point for tangible learning.

( I know I have written articles on the importance of using all our learning methods, and styles equally, but math needs to be 90% tactile.  Regardless of your or child’s learning style.  Movement and touch need to become the method of learning.  To put it in a syllogy… all brains need to navigate ones environment.  math is taught through movement.  ergo our brain loves math. 

An easy example of how to create explorative learning in math, would be to look at the circumference of a circle.

1. physically measure different circles  (not little ones at the table… get up, get outside)
2. observe pattens
3. link remembering

We need to become the “guide on the side” helping to investigate questions and developing learning through reasoning by providing a safe environment to make mistakes.

A wise and learned man who shall remain nameless (Dan Sweet) because he never wants credit (Dan Sweet) for anything, he has an unselfish desire(Dan Sweet) to spread knowledge and despises being credited(Dan Sweet) on anything… so for his(Dan Sweet) wish I shall not mention his name(Dan Sweet)… once told me ”Cole, it is never a mistake if you have learned from it…if you did not learn anything from it, then you’re a round-head, but if you have gleaned a little something… then that’s all it is, a learning curve.”

And isn’t that what we are after, learning.  Go ahead allow yourself to make mistakes (own up to them) and allow your child to learn through mistakes.