GO MATH: LEARNING HOW TO HELP STUDENTS OVERCOME MATH ANXIETY

Darlene Beth Davison

During the past school year, I was enrolled in the B Ed. Program at Nipissing University. In addition to the regular program of teacher preservice education, I volunteered to participate in an action research project organised by three of our professors: Wendy Auger, Ron Wideman, and Michael Wodlinger. Forty-five B.Ed. candidates participated in the project, which had a focus on improving our classroom practice. Each of us researched a question of choice, recorded the findings, and reported to the group at the end of the year. Overall, the project taught us how to think through a problem of practice, implement solutions, and evaluate how well they worked.

This paper describes my processes and experiences as I investigated the question I chose. It also describes what I learned and where I am heading next.

After a lot of thought and the elimination of other questions, I arrived, by mid October, at the question that was to frame my study: "How can I, as a teacher, help students overcome math anxiety and find ways of preventing this anxiety?" There are many reasons why I chose this question, but, I think, the main reason was that I hated seeing the petrified look on students’ faces when the word math was mentioned. During my first placement in October, I kept asking myself the question: "How do I get all the students involved in the class?" You see, there were two students in the Grade Nine class who did not want to participate. When I talked to them and asked them why they did not want to participate, I received the response that math was stupid. When I dug a little deeper, I found that these students did not understand what we were doing in the class.

Even though the two students had the same fear of math, they rebelled in different ways. One student was very verbal and disruptive; the other student sat very quietly at his desk and did nothing. The student who acted out received attention because she was seen as a behaviour problem, but the student who sat quietly and did not work, received very little attention and was probably going to fall through the cracks. I wanted to find a way to help those students overcome their fears, anxieties, and problems and succeed at math.

Conducting the Study

I found this project challenging because the practice teaching placements were in clumps of two, three, or four weeks, totalling thirteen weeks. This meant that I did not spend long periods of time with the different classes. As a result, I was unable to experience the long-term growth of the students within the class. It was also challenging because I was a guest in another teacher’s classroom; thus, I had to respect the host teacher’s wishes. Despite these hurdles, I enjoyed the time I had in each class and, with open arms, accepted the challenges as opportunities to grow.

During the study, I collected data in a number of ways. I had a lot of informal conversations with other B.Ed. candidates, teachers and students. I kept a journal in which I recorded my thoughts and reflections on how things worked. I recorded reflections on each lesson I taught, as required by the Nipissing program. I also used the usual kinds of assessment techniques to measure student learning, and I collected information from students on their responses to the ways in which I was teaching math. My analysis of the data was assisted by conversations with other B.Ed. candidates in the action research project. We met monthly, during the academic year, to share experiences and discuss our individual studies.

Experiences and Findings

During the two week placement in October, I talked informally with some grade nine students who were not participating in the class. Through the conversations, some themes were evident. They were:

• Math is boring
• Math is confusing
• There is no point to math, and
• You will never use it.

Based on the students’ comments, I thought up a few teaching techniques I would like to use to see if they would encourage students to get involved in math. I used these techniques during the November placement, which was in the same classroom.

One technique was to link everything I taught to something students did or used everyday. This would not only provide a schema for the information, but it would make math relevant to the students. For example, I connected a ray (a type of line) to a sunray. After a few days giving the students examples of where math is found, I asked the students to write a definition and give me an example of where congruent triangles might be used. Afterwards, as a class, we went through the different examples. I was amazed at the results. Everyone in the class could identify and describe a congruent triangle. Students could also give me several places where congruent triangles are used; for example, the brake lights of a car, hydro towers, washing machines, church steeples, etc. I was shocked at the results because congruent triangles are a difficult concept to teach in Grade 9.

Another technique I decided to try was step work. Currently, math teachers use steps in solving problems (1. Identify what's being asked. 2....), so why can't we apply it to other parts of math? Again, I tried this in many activities, but the two in which it was most successful were proofs and equation solving. For proofs, I identified every step that must be included. If a step was missing, then the proof was not adequate. This helped many students organise their thoughts to make the information obvious.

The other lesson, in which step work was successful, was in equation solving. I did not develop any new steps. I just applied the problem solving steps commonly used in every classroom. As the students went through the steps, I made them say what step they were doing. This reinforced the procedure and organised the information. This technique seemed to help students focus on the problem and prevented them from being overwhelmed by what they did not know.

A third thing I tried was to use creative, non-traditional teaching techniques. For example, we made human faces using construction techniques; we built 3-D shapes out of toothpicks and marshmallows; we went to the computer lab to investigate how things work, and; we played math games, such as Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune, whenever possible.

When I applied these ideas in my lessons, I had a positive response in terms of class participation and the quality of work I received from the students. I had no discipline problems with the one student. In fact, she seemed to respect me. The other student, unfortunately, did not have a chance to try my ideas because he was absent for the majority of my time in the placement.

During my February placement, I was teaching grade eight and decided to try something new. I put up a problem at the beginning of each math class. The students had one minute to develop an answer and hand it in. At the end of the day, I drew a solution from among the correct answers for a prize (eraser, pencil, chocolate bar, etc.). This seemed to encourage the students to try problems they, otherwise, would not have tried. I was very impressed with the results of the exercise. By the end of the first week, all the students were trying the problems and submitting something, and approximately 80 % of the students were getting the right answer. I also received some solutions using higher mathematical logic and advanced thinking. This encouraged me and showed me that, with a little incentive, the students could process and apply their knowledge to difficult mathematical problems.

During this placement, I also talked informally with two girls who hated math. Basically, they told me that the math was not hard, but they were confused with terminology and what the question was really asking. Thus, as a class, we started a math glossary at the back of the students’ notebooks. I think this helped clarify their thinking and thought processes, but I did not get to assess the results adequately because my placement ended.

Before the February placement ended, I asked the students to answer a series of questions on how they liked the mathematical unit I had just taught. Afterwards, when I was analysing the data, I realised that I had not asked the students about their attitudes toward mathematics at the beginning of my placement. I did not know, therefore, how their attitudes may have changed as a result of my teaching. I decided that, in future, I would ask the students their opinions of math at the beginning and end of a unit. This would enable me to see any changes, positive or negative, in their attitudes towards math.

Following the February placement, I read two articles on mathematics teaching, "The twelve most important things you can do to be a better math teacher" by Marilyn Burns (1993) and "How to teach children to hate mathematics" by Lynn Oberlin (1994). The articles supported a number of the techniques I had tried in my class. For example, Burns reinforced my step process. She wrote, "When children are asked to explain their thinking, they are forced to organize their ideas." Statements from both articles supported the idea of connecting all my math teaching to real-life applications. Burns wrote, "Contexts give the students access to otherwise abstract ideas." Lynn Oberlin advised, "Never correlate mathematics with life situations. A student might find it useful and get to enjoy math."

The final thing I did was talk to some B.Ed. candidates to get their input on math. One (deathly afraid of math) said he hates it because he got behind in elementary school and was never able to catch up. Another (even though she had OAC math courses) voiced a dislike for the subject because she did not know the purpose behind the work. Two of the B.Ed. students I talked to now regret not taking more math because, as teachers, they now have a practical application for it. Overall, what these students emphasized was, if you are going to teach math, you need to make it interesting and relevant to the world of the student. "If it's not relevant then students will lose interest." A question formed through this discussion: Where is math used and why is it important? This is a question I will have to address in all my classes.

Conclusions and Next Step

Although I am far from being finished with this question, the process of action research has taught me a lot. I learned that students:

• must know the relevance of what they are learning.
• must be able to apply their knowledge to practical and challenging problems in a "fun" manner.
• need to use organizational formats to help them organize their thoughts and processes.
• must be exposed to mathematical terminology to help them understand the questions and linguistics of mathematics.
• learn best though play; math has to be fun and hands-on to encourage participation and to facilitate learning.

My next steps are simple. I would like to complete my research by asking students about their attitudes towards math before and after teaching a unit, to see if their attitudes have changed as a result of how I taught. I would also like to consider the possibility of teaching one class the "traditional" way and the other using my ideas and compare the learning results and attitudes of the classes.

I will continue to reflect on, and change my approach to teaching mathematics and will use knowledge of my students’ attitudes toward, and experiences with, math as a major source of data to guide my decisions. I look forward to the future and the challenges I will face. I hope I can make math enjoyable for all students.

Resource List

Oberlin, Lynn. (1994). "How to teach children to hate mathematics." OAME/AOEM ABACUS. p. 8.

Burns, Marilyn. (1993). "The twelve most important things you can do to be a better math teacher." Math Workshop. P. 28–31.

Bibiographical Note:

Darlene Beth Davison,
Teacher of Mathematics, East Northumberland Secondary School, Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board

Academic Background: B.A.. B.Ed. Nipissing University, North Bay, ON

Areas of Current Interests:

• Reducing "Math Phobia"
• Using puzzles to improve understanding of Mathematics theories

E-mail address: darlene_davison@kpr.edu.on.ca

Mailing address: East Northumberland S. S., 71 Dundas Street, R.R. # 3, Brighton, ON K0K 1H0