Teachers’ anxiety about teaching math may affect their students’ success in the subject.
A new study, published last month in the journal Educational Researcher, found a correlation between higher levels of teacher math anxiety and slightly lower student test scores. While the effect size is small, it may compound over time if students’ are repeatedly assigned to teachers who are uncomfortable with math, researchers said.
Plenty of adults claim they aren’t “math people.” While that general anxiety about math often overlaps with unease about teaching the subject, math teaching anxiety is its own subject that is less understood, researchers said.
Education Week’s story about this research prompted a flood of responses on our social media channels. Some educators said it confirmed their experiences and others speculated about why teachers have anxiety leading math instruction.
Here’s a roundup of some of the common themes they raised.
Teachers’ attitudes about math rub off on students
My daughter’s first grade teacher made a negative comment about math and I responded with: We approach math with an open mind. Seriously, if you are scared of basic math, then maybe become a specialist in something else so you don’t have to teach it.
‘Even teachers can be uncomfortable’
I’m not gonna lie, when I was in college, the course Math for the Elementary Teacher was dreaded by more than a handful of my classmates. I’m not saying they can’t or couldn’t teach math in their careers, but 19 years ago many of them had anxiety about that class.
Elementary teachers in Texas have to pass all individual subject tests to teach. However, math instruction is very different than it used to be, which is intimidating to many people. (Yes, even teachers can be uncomfortable and not equally talented with all subjects.)
Math isn’t ‘fun’
Just a few days ago, I was reading a fun post where teachers were saying what color each subject should be, and a teacher said something like, "Math should not be red. because red should be a fun color." I'm like "why don't you make it fun? there are plenty of resources to do it."
Teachers question curricula
Reading a modern math curriculum would give you anxiety too.
Math teaching methods have gotten too complicated
We have made mathematics and arithmetic so complicated that it is untenable for most teachers who teach multiple subject[s] and impossible for parents to help, and so students are left hanging out there on their own.
Teachers need more preparation to teach math
I wrote my dissertation on math anxiety in elementary teachers and found that when students struggle in math, teachers who exhibit even low levels of math anxiety struggle to help students in reteaching the concepts or teaching alternative strategies. It comes down to how U.S. teachers at the elementary levels have less requirements in their teacher-preparation programs than teachers across the world.
