We have often met students who were intrinsically fearful
of maths. The subject terrified them, gave them anxiety attacks and destroyed
their self-esteem. This fear seems to be quite widespread in adults too,
including parents and teachers.
Its is a matter of concern that till grade 4, students
seem to love and enjoy maths but as soon as they enter the world of abstract concepts
like fractions, decimals, percentages, confusion sets in and they feel more and
more helpless in succeeding in the subject. Added to that are incidents of
continuous lack of success in solving maths problems accompanied by poor
guidance from teachers and intense competition in a classroom, which actually
diminishes the self confidence of students.
Students with maths anxiety feel negative emotions when
engaging in an activity that requires numerical or maths skills. In one of the
studies carried out by researchers, when college students were informed that
they would be asked to take a maths test, it triggered a stress response in
students with high maths anxiety.
What actually happens when a student is anxious about his
performance in maths is that the emotion of fear impairs logical thinking and
problem solving skills. The amygdala which is the emotional centre of the
brain, first processes the information when taking in a problem and then
prioritizes information going to the prefrontal cortex, which focusses on
critical thinking. When a student gets anxious, there is more activity in the
amygdala than the prefrontal cortex and this reduces his ability to remember, analyze and respond accurately. It is
almost as if all the brain activity gets centred on worrying instead of
cognitive processing.
How can we help our children deal with this anxiety and
excel in their maths ability ?
The first step towards this is to help them improve their
concentration and focus. Secondly, the pedagogical approaches in maths have to
move away from memorizing procedures, rules and routines and focus on
conceptual understanding through activities and projects. Finding maths in
simple magic trics can improve students’ interest and focus. Drawing relevance
from real life connections is absolutely essential. Students should be taken
from simple to complex concepts and encouraged to ask questions. The teachers
need to underemphasize mistakes and instead help them learn through their
mistakes. Supplying them with correct answers without allowing them to explore
is “not” a good practice.
Self-introspection skills have to be inculcated enabling
students to actually discuss their fears and figure out the causes of their
anxiety.
Regular practice is extremely important for constant
reinforcement of the concepts.
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