Hello, there! In this post, we present an article written by Dr Flavia H. Santos, which was accepted to publication on the British Psychological Society, Newsletter of the BPS Developmental Section.
Challenges in teaching and learning maths are multilayered and require intricate solutions. It means that the child, the teacher, and the home environment bring unique contributions to foster mathematical learning and achievement. Then maths education barriers cannot be overcome with a single approach or without considering child-care-teacher relationships [Maths is More webinar†: https://youtu.be/oPbQ2Bpa2co%5D.
From teachers’ perspective, several equally complex aspects, such as curriculum structure, outdated methods and educational resources, teacher’s knowledge and professional experience and teacher beliefs about gender and race should be considered. Among them, teachers’ maths anxiety and teachers’ anxiety about teaching maths.
Maths Anxiety is a trending topic in maths education capturing the attention of clinicians and researchers in psychology, education, and neuroscience. This blooming is well justified since maths anxiety can be detrimental in the short- and long-term for both the individual and society. Maths anxiety is associated with lower grades and influences career choice, leading to avoidance or low attainment in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics areas, regardless of maths ability. For an outline and update see (1, 2).
I argue that a child with maths anxiety may become a parent or a teacher with maths anxiety and their negative views about maths will influence the next generation (3). For instance, spreading myths about maths, facial expressions of contempt, fear, or anger towards maths-related topics, and avoiding behaviours that children can embody. Negative experiences in maths learning during childhood in combination with shortcomings in professional development (e.g., insufficient or inefficient training, poor resources, low salaries and excessive workloads) may lead maths teachers to express discouraging attitudes towards pupils’ learning.
On top of that, teachers may not be confident while trying to convey the content in class. That would cause teacher’s sweat, shake, and unease among other reactions of nervousness right in front of their students. Research targeting the anxiety about teaching maths is growing (4, 5) from developing instruments to measure maths anxiety levels to interventions to reduce its impact. The anxiety about teaching maths intrudes on teachers’ preparation and delivery of content for the pupils, for instance, providing instruction too fast and avoiding students’ classroom participation, which in turn may lead to students’ low achievement. These findings may increase gender-related inequalities in professional development, as maths anxiety is more frequent among woman teachers and girl students.
Clearly, low numeracy is also associated with other determinants but for several reasons, it seems worth tackling the anxiety about teaching maths. It is important to raise awareness among teachers about a number of factors that can drain their teaching skills and growth mindset. Noteworthy, halting teachers’ maths anxiety is not uniquely beneficial to students. Teachers’ well-being is at stake. Maths anxiety could be a source to elicit burnout, leading to affect disorders, reducing self-efficacy and consequently depleting teachers’ job satisfaction.
In this context, I showcase the continuous performance development: “Teachers’ Maths Anxiety classroom management”. This programme is a key output of the Arithmós Project, funded by the Irish Research Council and led by me at University College Dublin in collaboration with Technological University Dublin. Consists of a single-session workshop held in schools and is fully based on evidence. It unfolds in-depth children’s maths anxiety and teachers’ anxiety about teaching maths. The training also provides a space for reflection and development of best practices, as well as signals effective interventions. The toolkit is complemented by basic reading for children, teachers, and parents. I am currently working on translating this programme into Spanish and Portuguese to foster cross-cultural research to test the effectiveness of this intervention in different contexts and curricula††.
How to cite this article: Santos, F. H. (2022, September). Mitigating teachers’ anxiety about teaching maths. Developmental Psychology Forum.
References
(1) Dowker, A., Sarkar, A., & Looi, C. Y. (2016). Mathematics anxiety: What have we learned in 60 years?Frontiers in Psychology, 7, Article 508.
(2) Cipora, K., Santos, F. H., Kucian, K., & Dowker, A. (2022). Mathematics anxiety-where are we and where shall we go? Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1513 (1), 10-20.
(3) Santos, F.H. (2022). A child with maths anxiety may become a parent or a teacher with maths anxiety. Dublin: Geary Institute. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.14770.
(4) Ganley, C. M., Schoen, R. C., LaVenia, M., & Tazaz, A. M. (2019). The Construct Validation of the Math Anxiety Scale for Teachers. AERA Open. https://doi.org/10.1177/2332858419839702.
(5) Hunt, T. & Sari, M. H. (2019). An English Version of the Mathematics Teaching Anxiety Scale. International Journal of Assessment Tools in Education, 6 (3), 436-443. DOI: 10.21449/ijate.615640.
†Maths is More is a consortium of organisations and individuals sharing a positive, empowering and evidence-based view of maths education. The group composed of teachers, teacher educators, researchers, consultants, and publishers, hosted three webinars gathering over 3,000 attendees. The trilogy explored the nature of mathematics, research findings about maths learning, and research support for effective classroom practice (The Working Group of Maths is More, 2022).
††The workshop core content is available for researchers, which can reach out to me for collaborations: Santos, F. H. (2022). Teachers’ Maths Anxiety classroom management programme. If an institution is interested in this programme, a session can be arranged through NovaUCD consultancy services.