Abstract
Mathematics anxiety is a longstanding, prevalent, global problem, and the scholarly literature demonstrates that it has significant consequences for both individuals and wider society. However, to date, there has been no simple, comprehensive, practical approach available to teachers, support staff, parents/carers and learners to address the issue. In this paper, previous work and existing approaches to addressing mathematics anxiety are reviewed; underlying concepts are examined, such as psychological safeguarding in the context of mathematics education and the distinction between the learner’s psychological states of challenge and threat. Agency is important for the well-being of learners and those who support them; an argument is made for an original approach to improving mathematical safeguarding and building mathematical resilience that involves increasing agency. This new approach brings three recognisable tools into a toolkit designed to be accessible to teachers, learners, parents/carers and support staff. The three tools are all individually well-established in specialised practice; they are: the hand model of the brain; the relaxation response and the growth zone model. It is argued that these tools are particularly well suited to addressing mathematics anxiety, that they are complementary and that together they form an effective and accessible toolkit. Details from small-scale studies are shared and it is concluded that this approach warrants further research to properly establish efficacy.
Highlights
Mathematics anxiety (MA) inhibits mathematics learning and has ongoing deleterious effects on learner well-being and life opportunities, as well as limiting the contribution individuals can make to wider society (Dowker et al, 2016)
Agency is important for the well-being of learners and those who support them; an argument is made for an original approach to improving mathematical safeguarding and building mathematical resilience that involves increasing agency
The originality of the current paper is in engaging with the complex, global problem of mathematics anxiety, and showing how to combine and apply three existing tools to solve this problem, thereby creating a new educational intervention of the kind described in principle as needed by Lyons and Beilock (2012)
Summary
Mathematics anxiety (MA) inhibits mathematics learning and has ongoing deleterious effects on learner well-being and life opportunities, as well as limiting the contribution individuals can make to wider society (Dowker et al, 2016). Effective psychological safeguarding designed to avoid learners developing anxiety associated with mathematics, is achievable through raised awareness of distress, on the part of teachers, support staff, parents/carers and learners, and the use of appropriate tools to communicate and address this distress. Three tools are introduced into the mathematics context that can be used better to understand learner responses to mathematical stimuli and to address adverse emotional states associated with learning mathematics. This can be seen as a form of psychological safeguarding in the context of learning mathematics or mathematical safeguarding (see below). The aim is to provide educators, who may currently feel helpless or perplexed, with the tools and agency to support learners struggling with MA or choosing to avoid mathematics
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