From September to December of 2024, I had the privilege of participating in the course Education, Literacy and Justice as part of my continued engagement with the Lodha Genius Programme. During this course, I successfully completed a research project on an issue close to my heart: math anxiety among Indian secondary school students. I hope my findings will prove useful to educators, parents, and students in India.
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Excellent article Netra. You have hit the nail on the head with a thorough and well researched piece. I cannot think of any pointers that you have left out.
ReplyDeleteAs a person who suffers from maths anxiety I can fully identify myself with all your points and recollect the horrors of going through them. This article le should definitely be widely circulated
Brilliant Netra.As usual your article is parexcellance. Though reasonably I was good at Matt's,it was always a stress before exams.You have depicted beautifully. Every teacher,parent and students should read your article. God bless you.
ReplyDeleteThatha.
This resonates with me! So many children go through math anxiety thanks to societal emphasis on this subject plus teachers who stress you out - and all the other reasons you have mentioned. It was always my Achilles heel as well. I have only learnt to appreciate the beauty of maths late in life when seeing it through your eyes
ReplyDeleteWhat do you feel about parents who suddenly quiz the child say over the dinner table about some quick arithmetic problem? Does this help or does it make it worse? Assume the parent’s intent is to help the child of course
ReplyDeleteVery well written, Netra. What an interesting topic. You make very valid points ranging from the root of the issue right up to viable solutions too. Mathematics needs to expand beyond the classroom to showcase the wonder that it is, how it makes up every aspect of the universe. For that to happen, the teachers need to be passionate about it. For teachers to bring and sustain that passion, they need to be remunerated justly. More importantly, math must go beyond being a ‘scoring subject’.
ReplyDeleteI am inspired by this article. It resonates with many of my classmates , who have talked to me about this a lot of times. I will certainly take the solutions above into consideration in order to stop math anxiety.
ReplyDeleteThank you for writing this article and picking up the subject as I was one of the student who always suffered and had math anxiety until addressed by challenging self and I absolutely agree with you that it starts from home and carries forward unless addressed.
ReplyDeletePlease keep coming up with your research and findings as topics like these can lead to definite solutions and very helpful.
Netra, your article resonates with all the " math chaos" that I have been living with for a long time. It was a thrill to read as it has given me a lot if insight as well as clarity. Keep churning out such articles! Your work keeps making a difference to so many lives! Proud of my niece!
ReplyDeleteMath is a subject,which needs a good foundation, taught by a teacher, who is good at the subject. Also it needs continuity.It needs a teacher, who loves the subject and can teach with interest at the lower level classes. Once the interest is created, the student would want to go ahead of the class.For example, in permutation and combination, the teacher should go to the bottom of the problem to create. a reality. The student would ,by himself answer before the teacher explains.
ReplyDeleteSurely it is an inborn interest, like drawing. But interest can be created, by a smart teacher, since it is a very important subject in the current scientific World.
Nethra, you have analysed well, but the subject is beyond analysis. It should be inborn andinteresting.
Netra you always choose excellent Topics for your blog
ReplyDeleteI didn't like mathematics and hence chose medicine as in my days
it was like that
You have analysed the problem so well with so many facts it will be very helpful for students and teachers and parents
Not being good at maths is not good Even for doctors like me
Research needs statistics and mathematics
Fortunately I am married to a brilliant mathematics teacher
Proud of you Netra God bless
Dear netra,
ReplyDeleteA well presented article on a very relatable topic!
Can't agree more with you on many points.
Being a math teacher myself for grades 11&12, for 35+ years, it is not easy to pin point any one reason for the anxiety of students.
The pressures on the teachers regarding completion of portions, the reduced time frame for the comparative volume of information, could be reasons for teachers rushing through the syllabus.
As you rightly mentioned, the complexity and abstractness of the subject proportionately goes up as you go to a higher grade.
So it is very necessary for the teacher of higher grades to be patient, not only with the anxious students, but even with a student who is normal. Math, with its level of abstractness and complexity should be dealt very compassionately. Not labelling students as a smart or weak child based on the marks obtained should be kept in mind while addressing a student's grades.
I personally feel that understanding of the subject and scoring marks in the exam are not and should not be correlated.
As you very correctly put it, a student who scores less in a test, gets disheartened and his morale goes down and interest, proportionately plummets. Maths, as you correctly put it, is a subject which is built over many years of hard work and does not come in easy like any other subject and cannot be done overnight but with consistent hard work.
As far as parents go, they tend to pressurise the child as getting seat in good universities is not easy.
None to be blamed, or all to be blamed is the question for the anxiety!
Hi Netra! well written article. You have thoroughly researched the subject and presented it well. Kudos to you.
ReplyDeleteAs a Cuemath’s teacher myself, I can understand the problem of math anxiety among children. Math anxiety exists in lower grade students also.
Main problem could be that the teachers rush through the syllabus without imparting proper understanding of the
Concepts. In math, every concept is a
continuity of earlier concepts and thus it
becomes essential that the student has a strong conceptual knowledge.Lack of this
increases their anxiety.
Exams, marks, peer pressure, expectations from parents and teachers are too overwhelming for the students and this also adds to their anxiety.
Daily practice of solving math problems can reduce pressure and anxiety. This will also boost confidence in students.
Hey Netra, I've had a bitter-sweet relationship with math myself. Most points you highlighted were right on the money! Somebody has to address these to the educational boards. A different subject this time speaks well about your versatility. Very good article. Keep writing and all the best! Regards.
ReplyDeleteWell written Nethra. I can easily resonate with every sentence . Mathematics was always a nightmare for me and was accentuated by the fear instilled by teachers about the subject. I only know how I crossed the hurdle in the final examination in school. That I picked up the basic nuances later is another story. Thanks
ReplyDelete