Buckley and Ribordy define math anxiety as, “Irrational dread of mathematics that interferes with manipulating numbers and solving mathematical problems within the variety of everyday life and academic situations.” Math anxiety is an increasingly present, yet accepted, danger in American society. As students progress towards secondary level math classes, the anxiety they face when it comes to performing mathematical tasks can be debilitating, preventing them from demonstrating critical thinking. Upon graduation, students in the U.S are leaving high school with a far below standard level of mathematical understanding and literacy (Steen, 1999). As performance in math courses decline students begin to lose interest in pursuing careers that are even tangentially related to mathematics, ultimately preventing these students from pursuing STEM related college pathways, resulting in decreased diversity in STEM fields.
This study will identify the level of math anxiety present in Math 1 students using a modified version of the MARS (Mathematical Anxiety Rating Scale), a tool that has been used in research and clinical studies since 1972 (Suinn and Winston, 2003). After identifying the level of Math anxiety present in students a correlation between math anxiety and performance on mathematical tasks and assessments will be established. It is anticipated that there will be a negative correlation (a higher level of math anxiety results in a lower score on a performance task or assessment) indicating that high levels of math anxiety prevent students from being successful in math courses. As the study progresses innovative teaching strategies and pedagogical approaches that aim to reduce math anxiety in students will be implemented. The goal of the study is to identify a set of practices that can guide math teachers seeking to directly target their student’s math anxiety, reduce it and increase a student’s capacity to perform mathematical tasks.
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Reading through articles for my study I will be considering the following questions:
“Mathematics anxiety and coping strategies among middle school students” authored by Skaalvik explored the relationships between student’s goal setting and different coping strategies used to survive math courses despite feelings of anxiety. Two significant coping mechanisms, self-protective and problem-focused, were identified. This article highlights actions such a hiding work, or avoiding exposure for the fear of being called out by a teacher as ways that a students math anxiety can lead to decreased understanding of concepts over time. I find this evidenced in my classroom as students who don’t ask questions or seek help during work time are incorrectly assumed to understand the material and so no remediation or one-on-one teaching takes place, but upon deeper questioning they show a complete lack of procedural competence. This related directly to my driving question which seeks to find a connection between math anxiety and student performance on math related tasks. If a student is avoiding help by refusing to appear vulnerable then their performance will suffer over time. Considerations that I might make in my methodology because of this article include looking for common behaviors in my students who survey for high levels of math anxiety. There may be some insight gained when looking closely at the actions these students take in order to protect their egos. “Math anxiety: Overcoming a major obstacle to the improvement of student math performance” authored by Furner and Bernam explored The NCTMs (National Council for Teachers of Mathematics) recognition of math anxiety as a problem that teachers have to actively combat in our students. The article goes on to say that current methodologies used in teaching mathematics are partly responsible for the levels of anxiety that we see and any reforms to teaching of mathematics have to start with teacher training around the standards set by NCTM. This article outlines other studies that discuss causes of math anxiety, best practices for math instruction and ways to reduce math anxiety in students. All of these topics are directly related to my study and will form the major body of my work. Most notably this article highlights that math should be taught with a focus on the process for problem solving rather than computation or repetitive processing which will be something I must consider when thinking of best practices for reducing anxiety in my students. “The Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale, a brief version: Psychometric data” authored by Suinn and Winston explores the history of the MARS (Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale) as well as the many different iterations of the scale that have evolved over time. The MARS began as a 98 item inventory for identifying math anxiety but was cut down to 30 items by researchers seeking to get quicker data without sacrificing accuracy of identifying math anxiety. For my study I will be using a 10 item inventory that is based on the 30 item version of the MARS. All categorical items were considered and retained but questions were tailored to the experience that my students have as high school students. As I conduct and analyze the 10 item surveys I will have to consider if a longer survey would have been more valid or if high school students, bored by a survey longer than 10 items, would skip over or rush through questions. In “A new culture of learning” John Seely uses the examples of surfing, World of Warcraft and speed chess in order to demonstrate the need for modern education to provide students with tacit opportunities for learning which build their creative nature and help them grow by providing a framework highlighting the need for learning to take place. This video made me think of all the ways that my students seem to be fearless in the face of failure when it comes to things they are motivated to be good at. Things like Fortnight, skateboarding or even vlogging are seen as activities where failure is a learning experience but when it comes to content, the idea that failure is part of the process is unthinkable.
In “Five minds of the future” Howard Gardner speaks about his ideas of the existence of 5 minds: disciplined, synthesizing, creating, respectful and ethical. Gardner says near the end of the video that the time required to become a master at something has been dramatically reduced since the proliferation of technology. This reinforced in me the idea that there has to be a way to integrate technology into my pedagogical practices in a way that is both meaningful for teaching my content but also for the practicality of leveraging something that is so pervasive in my students life. They are using youtube to learn innovative ways to hack the world around them; why not show them how to use that same tool to master mathematics. In “Do schools kill creativity?” Sir Ken Robinson speaks about how creativity is just as important a skill as literacy but as a result of stigmatizing mistakes students are not able to fully realize their creative selves. His discussion of the roots of our education system being the need to satisfy the demands created by industrialism and how that also created a hierarchy of subjects; placing math, science and English above the creative classes such as art, drama and dance was fascinating. Gillian Lynne’s story also reminded me of our obligation to help our students make sense of their talents in order to honor all of their intelligences. In “The surprising science of motivation” Daniel Pink discusses motivation and how, contrary to what we do in practice, intrinsic motivation is a more reliable than extrinsic motivation when it comes to encouraging students to think outside the box. Pink highlights the need for opportunities that value our student’s autonomy, mastery and purpose if we want to build their creative nature instead of stifle it. This talk reminded me of the drive that our students have to do things that matter and if we can get students to care about our content there is nothing they will not do to be successful at it. Reading Mobley’s ideas in “Can creativity be taught?” I couldn’t help but think about all the ways that we cut creativity in our curriculum by asking students to focus on finding answers to questions that we feel are valuable instead of asking them to question content and engage in meaningful ways that lead them to deeper understandings through a process of inquiry. If we teach our students to effectively ask questions and explore their interests then we build intrinsic motivation to understand content. The ideas in the article such as creativity being a natural state that students lose through progressing in our education system reinforce what each speaker was talking about in their videos. At the end of the article Mobley alludes to the fact that students must have the tenacity and the never-ending belief in oneself in order to not give up on the learning process right in the middle of discovery. Thinking about my student’s feelings or anxieties toward mathematics, I was left with the question: How can we build up our students to a place where they believe in themselves more than they fear failure? Research into the topic that led to the coining of the term “math anxiety” began with researchers Dreger and Aiken who introduced the concept of “number anxiety” in 1957. In 1972 Richardson and Suinn defined Mathematics anxiety to be “A feeling of tension and anxiety the interferes with the manipulation of numbers and the solving of mathematical problems in ordinary life and academic situations.” In 1980 Hsi associated math anxiety with student’s poor performance in academic courses and described how math anxiety leads to math avoidance which prevents one from pursuing activities or careers that require mathematical performance. In 1988 Wigfield and Meece , inspired by the work of Liebert and Morris who made discoveries in the field of test anxiety, defined two distinct categories of Math anxiety: cognitive and affective. While it is acknowledged in current research that some have significant impairments to their ability to learn and perform mathematics due to existing cognitive difficulties, data has strongly suggested that math anxiety prevents performance and learning in mathematics due to avoidance and disruption of memory transfer. Researchers Ma and Kishor suggest that attitudes towards mathematics begins to decline as one grows into adolescence, and other factors such as gender, socio economic status and even genetic factors can contribute to one’s math anxiety.
The MARS scale, Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale, has been the primary tool used for research and clinical study since 1972. The original scale was a 98 item inventory and has seen many iterations, mostly ranging from 20-30 items, by modern researchers who desired a more efficient way to collect data. In 1999, Suinn conducted a study using “The 30-item MARS Scale” which represented the core factors measured by the original MARS and was found to be just as reliable in identifying a presence of math anxiety in a subject. Most modern research into math anxiety tends to look at the physiological responses the body has to math in subjects who are found to have math anxiety. In 2009, Hellhammer conducted a study that found higher levels of cortisol, a hormone secreted as a response to stress, in subjects with math anxiety when they were exposed to situations requiring mathematical performance. In 2010, Pletzer assessed students in a statistics course with a version of the MARS and monitored changes in their cortisol levels during examination and found an increase but was not able to find significant correlation between rise or decline of cortisol levels and ones performance on the exam. In 2011, Matarella-Micke conducted a similar study where they assessed working memory and cortisol levels before and after subjects were presented with a difficult math related task. They found that for subjects with a high working memory scores: high levels of math anxiety indicated a rise in cortisol while performance suffered and low levels of math anxiety indicated a rise in cortisol while performance ability increased. There is still much research to be conducted into the topic of math anxiety. For this class, I will be researching the correlation between math anxiety and performance on specific assessments. I believe that I will see a negative correlation between the presence of math anxiety and performance on summative assessment; meaning that as students experience increased levels of math anxiety their ability to perform effectively will decrease. “What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must we want for all children in the community. Any other ideal for our schools is narrow and unlovely; acted upon, it destroys our democracy”
John Dewey, in his quote above, indicates a logical truth that has not been accepted nor demanded by large sections of our nation because it requires a level of empathy and foresight that cannot be attained due to entitlement and ignorance. While education is understood to be the most consistent way for one to positively change their socioeconomic status, education in this country is anything but consistent. As outlined in her book “The Flat World and Education” Linda Darling-Hammond makes reference to all of the inequities that exist in American education. In particular, when considering the learning environments in low socioeconomic areas, disproportional negatively impacting students of color, Darling-Hammond and Dewey’s insights converge as it becomes apparent that we are not providing what is best to all children in our community. If we continue to ignore this inequity, assuming that we have not reached this critical failure already, we will eventually face a society that is further divided by race, class and socioeconomic status as those indicators will directly translate into what levels and quality of education are realistically achievable. Darling-Hammond outlines a policy prescription that she believes will start to close the widening disparities in American education. In examining her 5 key elements, this is how I believe changes to current policy and practice should affect change in modern education.
2. Intelligent, reciprocal accountability systems In order to truly make education a cause for social change, along with standards for student learning, we need to ensure that students are receiving the best education they can from educators that are highly trained and qualified in their field. Darling-Hammond suggests teaching standards of practice as well as teacher training that would allow teachers to reach this standard. On a national level this could look like a change in the way that teachers are certified and an increase to the minimum requirements for receiving a teaching credential. It would also mean quality professional development for teachers, structured around the needs of students and taught by experienced teachers to ensure authenticity. 3. Equitable and adequate resources Successfully implementing this key strategy would require strict communication between federal and state agencies. At the state level, individual states would have to communicate need based on opportunity indicators and at the federal level, resources would have to be made available. The hardest resource to allocate is the human resource of teachers so there would need to be an established incentive program for experienced teachers to work in areas that are in greater economic need. Furthermore, other resources including money, will be properly allocated in order to ensure that students with the most needs are able to meet the same standards as those without those needs. 4. Strong professional standards and supports Knowing that the greatest inequality is created by the distribution of teachers which sees the most qualified and prepared instructors going to school districts that are the most affluent, it is imperative that we fix the teacher recruitment processes. This could include offering incentives for working in less affluent districts or more effectively offering coaching to new teachers by experienced teachers in order to develop strong competence internally. Once teachers are in place we must train them, reward them for being highly qualified and create pathways for experienced teachers to lead schools. We must leverage the expertise that is gained from years in the classroom. 5. Schools organized for student and teacher learning Darling-Hammond indicates that school will need vision, capacity and policy support to create more productive schools. School districts need to enforce state and federal policy that requires schools to provide quality education to all students while simultaneously offering the supports that schools need in order to make this happen. |
Brandon DeJesusMath Archives
July 2019
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