Vol. 29 No. 1 Spring 2024 23 Identifying, Supporting and Preventing Anxiety in the Mathematics Classroom Janet Goulding shares the ideas emerging from work on anxiety she has been doing with the London SW Maths Hub for the past two years. Awareness of maths anxiety has increased dramatically in recent years, but what actually works? Over two years, teachers in the London SW Maths Hub have collaborated to consider the research and explore strategies to find the best way to support affected students, as well as reducing anxiety for all students. This involved: • Developing a simple tool to evaluate students’ attitudes using ‘Zones of regulation’ • Trialling different strategies to discover what works best in individual settings • Producing a PowerPoint to share with pupils helping them to tackle negative feelings towards maths. What is Maths Anxiety? Tobias and Weissbrod (1980) described maths anxiety as “The panic, helplessness, paralysis, and mental disorganization that arises among some people when they are required to solve a mathematical problem”. A Cambridge Maths Espresso describes how Maths anxiety may be the result of lower maths attainment (deficit model), whereas in a second model (deleterious) the reverse is true, whereby the anxiety causes a drop in maths attainment. Often this links to a vicious downward cycle. Research has shown that maths anxiety is not always well-founded, with some students perceiving themselves as being less competent at maths than they actually are. It is these students that we particularly need to focus on to prevent future anxiety. Figure 1 - slide from Maths Anxiety Presentation Maths anxi well-foun students perc as being le maths than ety is not always ded, with some eiving themselves ss competent at they actually are
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