'I'm never going to understand this': the maths anxiety in our schools

The cause of this common and often enduring affliction? Maths anxiety.

And it’s not just students who experience a nervousness and fear of maths – their teachers do too.

At Dandenong Primary School, a pilot program grounded in psychology is giving teachers the skills to identify and address maths anxiety in themselves and their students.

Before tackling maths problems, the school's grade 5 and 6 pupils gather on stools at the front of the classroom, turn up their palms, close their eyes and take deep breaths.

“Think about somewhere you’d really like to be,” their teacher Beth Carpenter croons.

“It might be the beach, the rugby, your room. Make sure you can see it. One more big breath. Now here is your problem.”

The question flashes up on the electric whiteboard: how can you cut a doughnut into eight equal pieces with only three cuts of a knife?

Students then spend the next 10 minutes solving the problem, using markers to sketch fractions on pieces of paper and moulding playdough into miniature doughnuts which they snip with plastic scissors.

When they get stuck, they close their eyes, and slowly inhale.

After 10 minutes, the majority of girls and boys have solved the problem. More importantly, they all raise their hands when asked if they’ve learnt something.

Ms Carpenter said the initiative had helped her overcome her own maths anxiety.

“When I grew up I was told maths was for boys not for girls,” she said.

It’s hoped overcoming this fear ensures teachers don't inadvertently transmit negative attitudes about maths to their students.

The program was developed by the Australian Council for Educational Research, with funding from the Sidney Myer Fund, and is being piloted in 10 Victorian primary schools. It involves face-to-face and online training with teachers and maths coordinators and then an analysis of the pilot.

It’s not known how many students experience maths anxiety, but US research shows that primary teachers-in-training report the highest levels of the condition across university courses.

The council’s research fellow Dr Sarah Buckley said it was also big problem in Australia.

Maths anxiety disrupts students’ learning, deters them from choosing maths electives and can influence their career choices.

“If someone is very anxious about something, the thing they want to do least is be involved in that thing, they want to avoid it,” Dr Buckley said.

“Avoidance is often the most significant consequence of mathematics anxiety. We argue that using a psychological approach can help you remove that barrier.”

Maths was surrounded by harmful myths that could also lead to this anxiety, she said.

“A student might think their maths ability is fixed, or inherited, or they might say, ‘I am just not a maths person’. They feel like any effort to try and improve is going to have any positive outcome.”

As well as physiological symptoms, including a beating heart and fast breathing, Dr Buckley said some symptoms had a mental component.

“These are really negative intrusive thoughts about your ability and performance in maths,” she said. “A feeling that, “I’m never going to understand this’.”

School captain Rida Rezaye loves the challenge of maths, and the gratification of solving a problem.

But the 12-year-old said she had experienced maths anxiety when sitting a test.

Now she closes her eyes, focuses on her breathing, and returns to the task.

“It takes my mind off it,” she said. “It’s helped a lot.”