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What is Maths Anxiety?

According to the Maths Anxiety Trust, maths anxiety is a negative emotional reaction to mathematics that can cause feelings of helplessness, panic, and mental disorganisation when faced with a mathematical problem. Does this sound familiar to any of you? A 2018 study, found that 23% of parents with children aged 5-15, reported their child often feels anxious when solving maths problems. Apparently, maths anxiety can develop during a child’s early life, even as young as when beginning to learn basic number skills.

We know that maths anxiety can significantly affect academic performance, often causing students to perform below their true potential in tests. This demonstrates the importance of addressing maths anxiety early to prevent its long-term impact and what we do at Edge Grove to mitigate against these feelings that some children experience.

Where does maths anxiety come from?

The causes of maths anxiety are thought to be varied and complex, encompassing several factors:

• Pressure-filled situations: For example, the fear of being judged on how quickly an answer is provided, or the stress of sitting exams.
• Negative past experiences: Such as feeling embarrassed or humiliated in school for making mistakes.
• Cultural bias: For instance, stereotypes in media or popular culture suggesting that someone’s background or gender makes them less capable in maths.
  A child experiencing maths anxiety is more likely to perform poorly, and poor performance can, in turn, exacerbate their anxiety. However, maths anxiety isn’t limited to pupils who struggle with the subject. A 2019 Cambridge University study revealed that over three-quarters of children with maths anxiety were actually average to high achievers in maths.

While maths anxiety is often unrelated to academic ability, the stress it generates can interfere with performance, thus feeding a vicious cycle: anxiety worsens performance, reinforcing negative feelings about maths. Over time, this can create or strengthen the belief that maths ability is “fixed” and cannot improve, ultimately undermining motivation to practise in order to learn and progress.

What does Edge Grove do to support pupils with maths anxiety?

Here at Edge Grove, in order to support pupils, all teachers adjust their teaching approaches to accommodate the potential triggers of maths anxiety. When introducing a new topic, we ensure that activities and learning are designed to support pupils’ cognitive development and not overload them. To do this, we break down learning into smaller components using concrete, pictorial and visual resources to secure pupils’ understanding in the mathematical concept they are learning.

Building pupils’ confidence is essential to reducing maths anxiety, and the Edge Grove curriculum is cyclical by design and supports this by offering repeated practice opportunities. One effective strategy when introducing new concepts is the ‘My Turn, Our Turn, Your Turn’ approach, which involves modelling, then solving mathematical problems collaboratively, ensuring that pupils have sufficient confidence to then work independently.

Additionally, we may use ‘sentence stems’ to promote clarity and precision. These structured sentences teach children accurate mathematical vocabulary, which helps them articulate their ideas clearly and with mathematical accuracy. This approach not only enhances their understanding but also empowers pupils to communicate their thoughts confidently and make connections with prior learning.

What can parents do to help their children?

I encourage you to make maths a part of everyday life! Maths is everywhere in the world and cannot be avoided. Parents have the opportunity to make maths real – even more than teachers! Some examples include completing the weekly shop, cooking in the kitchen, doing DIY jobs – there are plenty of opportunities to have maths-based discussions. You could deliberately shop with cash so your child can develop an understanding of coin denominations and can make mental calculations to determine change. You could ask them what the time is; tell them how long a journey will take and ask them to calculate the arrival time, thus reinforcing their understanding of time; read transport timetables; work out whether supermarket discounts actually offer value for money; calculate percent increases on loans. When you start to look for maths opportunities in everyday life, you will start to notice them everywhere!

The most important thing to remember is to avoid telling your children that you are not confident with maths, ‘no good’ at maths or even ‘hate maths’. Saying this can encourage children to believe that it’s acceptable to feel the same way. Being aware of the language we use around maths with children is very important when trying to forge a positive relationship with numbers. Instead, help your children believe that they can succeed in maths, as there’s no reason why they shouldn’t. Reinforce this mindset by encouraging them to maintain a positive attitude, even when it gets tricky!