Teachers and too much homework contribute to maths anxiety – study

If the thought of fractions or differential equations makes you break you out in a cold sweat, you are not alone. Maths anxiety – a negative emotional reaction to mathematics – is a global phenomenon, hampering maths achievement regardless of where people live, research has found.

It’s not only a child’s own maths anxiety that affects their performance but that of their peers: the largest and most culturally diverse study to date shows that in about half of countries, including England, the average level of maths anxiety within the same school or classroom predicts individual students’ maths achievement, independently of their own anxiety levels.

“Having found that the emotional state of one’s peer group may have an effect on children’s maths achievement, it is important for teachers, parents and policymakers to not only be mindful of a child’s own ability or emotional state, but the context in which they’re studying,” said Dr Nathan Lau, of the University of Western Ontario, who led the research.

Many people experience some degree of discomfort when confronted with a mathematical problem, ranging from mild tension to intense dread. Some people also experience physical symptoms such as a racing heart, sweating or feeling sick. Besides avoiding everyday situations involving numbers, people with such feelings may hold back from applying for promotions or pursuing careers in related subjects such as science, technology or engineering.

To better understand the contextual factors underpinning maths anxiety, Lau and colleagues analysed data from 1,175,515 students who participated in three large international studies of achievement. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that students in countries with higher levels of maths anxiety tend to achieve lower maths grades.

The strongest predictor of maths anxiety was how competent students perceived their maths teacher to be: those with less confidence in their teacher tended to feel more anxious. Being set large amounts of maths homework, and parental involvement in homework, also contributed to anxiety to a lesser degree.

In about half of countries, it wasn’t only the child’s own level of maths anxiety that predicted their achievement but that of their peers. One factor appeared to be the cultural acceptance of uncertain situations.

“It seems like the more rigid or less accepting of uncertainty [a culture is], the lower this peer group effect is,” Lau said. “We can’t really say if there’s a causal relationship, but one hypothesis is that teachers have a more organised way of teaching their materials [in such countries]. Possibly, children with maths anxiety prefer there to be fewer surprises, such as being called on to stand up and work out a question on a blackboard.”