Inspiration Behind Why Do Students Hate Math?
I did not like math as a kid. I could not understand why my teachers made it so hard. My two pet peeves were going to the board to answer a math problem, and the metric system. I hated converting inches to feet or centimeters to meters, and if I am still getting it incorrect, you can see my disdain for math and how confused I was as a kid in math class.
These situations in my elementary and high school years are what inspired me to write this article. Many times I had butterflies in my stomach going to math class.I did not conquer my fear of fractions, decimals, word problems (that were so out in left field and did not make any common sense to me LOL), and percentages. This math anxiety continues to rule over me.
What is Math Anxiety?
Ukobizaba et. al (2021), “The implications drawn from this study are that teachers link classroom mathematics to real-life situations, compare lessons adequately before the presentation, give clear examples, administer adequate homework and exercises, provide tests with feedback provision, implement significant group works,and show a sense of humor, while responding to the diverse students’ needs”.
Why Is Math Important?
Most students dislike math for different reasons. The term math anxiety is widely researched and is evidence-based. The difficulty for students to achieve mathematics usually begins at the elementary level. According to Ukobizaba et. al. (2021), “negative attitudes towards mathematics commonly known as ‘math anxiety’ are a serious problem to students at all educational levels today. In its nature, teaching is a complex task that requires teachers to have support to change their teaching practices. There is a common belief that most students dislike mathematics, due to an array of factors related to instruction and students’ cognitive, affective and psychomotor attributes, subject matter, and the learning environment”.
Research Behind Math Anxiety
Students begin to face math difficulty in class when they are not able to answer questions correctly. This problem is due to missing steps in a math problem and ending up with the wrong solution. Students are not confident in their assignments and exams because of the way they are taught math.
According to Ukobizaba et al. (2021), “the reasons why students dislike mathematics and the potential ways to teach it were explored. Students dislike mathematics because of getting low marks in tests and exams, however, they had no objections to being provided with a lot of exercises”.
What Can Be Done?
Math is important because numbers and the concepts behind them are all around us. For example, we are numbers. We have birthdays, Social Security Numbers, and in order to know these things we must be taught how to count numbers, know how to write them, identify them when we see them written down, and know their order. As we grow up we learn more and more about numbers. We learn how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide numbers. These basic premises of mathematics are based on this simple concept. But if we are not taught correctly this is when the hatred for math begins; what a sad thought.
Reference
- Ukobizaba, Fidele, Kizitondihoku-bwayo, Angel Mukuka, and Jean Uwamahoro. “From what makes students dislike mathematics towards its effective teaching practice.” Bolema: Boledium de Educaco Mathematica. 35 (2021): 1200-1216.