{"id":583,"date":"2016-04-22T06:00:09","date_gmt":"2016-04-22T06:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.studypug.com\/blog\/?p=583"},"modified":"2024-08-09T17:45:37","modified_gmt":"2024-08-09T17:45:37","slug":"tutoring-relieves-math-anxiety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.studypug.com\/tutoring-relieves-math-anxiety\/","title":{"rendered":"Math anxiety: how parents and students can fix this"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It\u2019s normal to find math difficult since everyone tends to hit a roadblock every now and then. But it\u2019s another thing if you find math hard all the time, which can be bad for both your grades and your self-confidence. Why is math hard for you? It could be for a variety of reasons, but know that it doesn\u2019t define you. Not everyone is super smart, but it helps to get even a bit good in math to at least get passing marks. If it\u2019s not getting any easier, then it\u2019s time to ask for help with your math.<\/span><\/p>\n If you\u2019re not sure if you do need help with math, then here are a few things to look out for. If you find yourself staying up all the time to finish your math homework, not liking math class at all, can\u2019t really understand what your teacher is saying during a lesson, and not feeling like you want to do good, then you do need help. Saying that you have a problem is the first thing you need to do when you think you\u2019re bad at math.<\/span><\/p>\n You need to help yourself first so you can be helped at all. If you\u2019ve got a tutor to help you, then you should pay close attention so that you can actually start getting better. If you\u2019ve signed up for an online learning platform with video lessons, then you have to actually watch those lessons like you should. When you\u2019re being helped, make good use of that opportunity.<\/span><\/p>\n Maybe you\u2019re a good student who came across a problem that\u2019s hard to solve. You should be able to say that you need help when the time arises. Even students who are usually really in school runs into problems sometimes, and those who want to keep improving ask for help all the time. If you want to get better in math or even in anything else in life, then you should not be ashamed of asking for help.<\/span><\/p>\n Other than that, you will need to continue actually paying attention in class and practicing what you\u2019ve learned by solving different kinds of problems. Having an equation memorized doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019ll be able to use it in an actual problem. You can get better with your math only by practicing consistently and as much as possible.<\/span><\/p>\n When you\u2019re really stumped, you can try registering at <\/span>StudyPug <\/span><\/a>to get the best math video help on the Internet. Ask your parents if they can help support you with this. With well-organized lessons video lessons taught by math experts and 24\/7 unlimited access, StudyPug can be your personal math tutor for best results. You can also try out our 7-days free trial to see if it\u2019s right for you! <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Are you a parent whose child is having difficulty with math? Finding math a challenge is a fairly common problem. Some people seem to have a natural talent for numbers but others struggle. Luckily, good teaching and tutoring assistance can help children who find math difficult. It can help them overcome their frustrations and anxiety and gain an understanding of the concepts and skills necessary to function in a society where numerical literacy is an important skill for everyday life. Math help for kids is more accessible than you may have originally thought. <\/span><\/p>\n A study published in 2014 by the U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research suggests that <\/span>intensive tutoring<\/span><\/a> is one way to bring youth up to speed on the mathematical knowledge they need. The study was conducted in Chicago among impoverished African-American Grade 9 and 10 students who had weak math skills and poor attendance records; about 25 percent of them also had a learning disability. One group of students were randomly assigned to receive intense tutoring and behavioral counselling; this group was compared to a control group that didn\u2019t have these options.<\/span><\/p>\n The researchers found that in eight months, based on standardized test scores, the students who received the assistance learned what the average high school student learns in three years, over and above the results of the control group.<\/span><\/p>\n Professor Jens Ludwig, director of the <\/span>University of Chicago\u2019s Urban Education Lab<\/span><\/a>, who led the study, said that it contradicts the common assumption that if disadvantaged students aren\u2019t helped with math by the age of six, it\u2019s too late. One hour of daily tutoring made a huge difference to these teens.<\/span><\/p>\n Tutoring<\/span><\/a> is also a promising solution for families because parents aren\u2019t always equipped to assist their children with math homework and issues. Professional tutors who are able to teach math to kids can make a big difference. A 2009 <\/span>study conducted for Intel<\/span><\/a> by Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates indicated that parents would rather talk to their children about sex and drugs than about science and math, and more than half of the 560 surveyed said they had trouble helping their children with these subjects.<\/span><\/p>\n Writing for the <\/span>New York Times\u2019 parenting blog<\/span><\/a>, education author Elizabeth Green offers some suggestions to parents who want to work with their children on improving their math skills and success:<\/span><\/p>\n What about the dreaded test, you may ask. Good question. <\/span>Test anxiety<\/span><\/a> is common among students, and math tests can be very stressful for those who aren\u2019t comfortable with math. Here are some tips to help students get through testing time:<\/span><\/p>\n Problems in learning math can be overcome with the right help, so don\u2019t panic. As <\/span>Franklin D. Roosevelt<\/span><\/a>, the former U.S. president, famously said, \u201cThere is nothing to fear but fear itself.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Parents are generally the most important influence in shaping their children\u2019s characters, so perhaps it shouldn\u2019t be surprising to learn that they also affect their offsprings\u2019 <\/span>attitudes toward mathematics<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Researchers at the <\/span>University of Chicago<\/span><\/a> previously showed that students can learn math anxiety from math-anxious teachers, but their newest study demonstrates that mom and dad \u2013 or the child\u2019s main caregivers \u2013 also have an impact. <\/span><\/p>\n Students whose parents were anxious about math learned less math than their peers during the school year, their study found. They were also more likely to have math anxiety themselves, but only if their parents helped them do their math homework. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cNotably, when parents reported helping with math homework less often, children\u2019s math achievement and attitudes were not related to parents\u2019 math anxiety,\u201d the 2015 study\u2019s lead author, Erin Maloney, and her co-authors wrote in their paper.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe often don\u2019t think about how important parents\u2019 own attitudes are in determining their children\u2019s academic achievement,\u201d Professor Sian Beilock, a psychologist and another of the study\u2019s authors, told the University of Chicago news service. \u201cBut our work suggests that if a parent is walking around saying \u2018Oh, I don\u2019t like math\u2019 or \u2018This stuff makes me nervous,\u2019 kids pick up on this messaging and it affects their success.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The research team focused their study on Grade 1 and 2 students. They then asked parents or main caregivers for 438 students to fill in a questionnaire at the start of the school year and again at the end. The survey posed various questions about their anxiety regarding math and ascertained how often parents assisted their children with homework.<\/span><\/p>\n The students were also assessed at the beginning and end of the year for math anxiety, as well as for math achievement and \u2013 as a control \u2013 reading achievement. Reading prowess was not affected by math anxiety.<\/span><\/p>\n This study built on an earlier study conducted by Beilock and U of Chicago colleagues. Their 2012 research showed that children express anxiety about doing math as early as Grade 1 by disrupting their working memory. If not addressed, it\u2019s an issue that can follow them throughout their lives. <\/span><\/p>\n Interestingly, math anxiety often harms the highest achieving students who have the most potential to succeed in mathematics. It may put them as much as half a year behind their less anxious counterparts. Children are very perceptive and may even pick up on anxiety about simple processes like addition and subtraction.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cEarly math anxiety may lead to a snowball effect that exerts an increasing cost on math achievement by changing students\u2019 attitudes and motivational approaches towards math, increasing math avoidance, and ultimately reducing math competence,\u201d Beilock wrote in the study.<\/span><\/p>\n Harris Cooper<\/span><\/a>, a Duke University professor who has studied homework, told the New York Times that parental math anxiety increases whenever schools introduce new ways of learning math. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cEducators can\u2019t take math, turn it into Greek, and say, \u2018Mom, Dad, will you help your kid with this,\u2019 and not expect to get a \u2018wha?\u2019 \u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n The researchers indicate that the situation isn\u2019t hopeless. Parents can improve their own comfort with math or learn to conceal their anxiety. They need to prepare, however, before working with their children. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe can\u2019t just tell parents\u2014especially those who are anxious about math\u2014\u2018Get involved,\u2019\u201d Maloney told the university news service. \u201cWe need to develop better tools to teach parents how to most effectively help their children with math.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The available tools include math books, computer and traditional board games, or Internet apps. How to teach kids math isn\u2019t immediately clear to the everyday parent, but there are lots of resources to help. Parents can also enlist <\/span>online math tutoring<\/span><\/a> to assist their children. Highlighting their own use of math in daily life is another good tactic: count your change out loud or compare prices in a grocery store.<\/span><\/p>\n Parents also shouldn\u2019t worry if they can\u2019t figure out their child\u2019s math problems. There\u2019s nothing wrong with suggesting that the child get extra help from the teacher.<\/span><\/p>\n When it\u2019s test time, Beilock suggests that students can help corral their anxiety using a technique called expressive writing. By writing about their math anxieties for about 10 minutes prior to a test, students can help to minimize their impact on working memory, reduce their anxiety and perhaps realize that their worries aren\u2019t as important as they originally believed. Younger students can be encouraged to draw pictures as an alternative. <\/span><\/p>\n Even something as simple as taking deep breaths before diving into the test can be beneficial. When students actually focused on the task at hand, rather than thinking about it, their brains were able to do their job.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t like spiders and snakes,\u201d say the words of an old country music song, but they might as well say, \u201cI don\u2019t like spiders and snakes and math.\u201d <\/span>Researchers at Stanford University<\/span><\/a> in California have determined that youngsters with math anxiety show the same neurological reactions to math as people with phobias about spiders and snakes exhibit when they come into contact with these creepy crawlers. The fear of math is very real phobia. <\/span><\/p>\n Luckily, these same researchers have determined that, like these phobias, math anxiety can be successfully treated with a therapy called exposure therapy. It exposes the sufferers repeatedly to the thing they fear in a safe environment. In the case of students with <\/span>math anxiety<\/span><\/a>, the therapy takes the form of one-on-one tutoring that employs a positive approach.<\/span><\/p>\n The research team, led by <\/span>Vinod Menon<\/span><\/a>, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, sought to identify a biological basis for math anxiety. Using magnetic resonance imaging, they determined that when children were asked to perform basic calculations, the brain showed increased activity in the amygdala, its major fear centre, and the hippocampus, the structure that aids in the formation of new memories. The heightened activity in the amygdala interfered with the function of the brain regions involved in numerical processing. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s remarkable that, although the phenomena was first identified over 50 years back, nobody had bothered to ask how math anxiety manifests itself in terms of neural activity,\u201d Menon told the Stanford University news service. \u201cOur findings validate math anxiety as a genuine type of stimulus- and situation-specific anxiety.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n It is possible to be good at math and still be scared of math, but over time, those who are anxious shy away from pursuing advanced mathematics, thus limiting career options. Until recently, little effort had been placed on addressing math phobia. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMath anxiety has been under the radar,\u201d said Kaustubh Supekar, PhD, the lead author of the study, told Science Daily. \u201cPeople think it will just go away, but for many children and adults, it doesn\u2019t.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Lessening maths fear is possible, however, with the help of one-on-one cognitive <\/span>tutoring<\/span><\/a>, the research indicated.<\/span><\/p>\n In their 2015 study, the Stanford team looked at 46 Grade 3 students, a critical age for acquiring basic mathematics skills. They gave each child a test to determine his\/her level of math anxiety and separated them into two groups: high anxiety and lower anxiety. They also gave them neuropsychological assessments and required them to complete addition or subtraction problems while undergoing a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan. <\/span><\/p>\n Next, the children were provided with 22 sessions of one-to-one tutoring that focused on addition and subtraction. All of them showed improvement in addition and subtraction at the end of the tutoring program. The youngsters with high math anxiety had reduced anxiety afterward, while the others didn\u2019t show any difference. A follow-up MRI scan while adding or subtracting indicated that the students who previously had a phobia of math no longer displayed activity in their amygdalas, meaning that the tutoring had relieved their anxiety, rather than finding a workaround.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s reassuring that we could help these children reduce anxiety by mere exposure to [math] problems,\u201d Supekar told the Stanford news service.<\/span><\/p>\n The tutoring was highly personalized, Menon told National Public Radio. If a child got stuck on a particular concept, the tutor would work with the student to \u201cget beyond the bottleneck in a non-negative, encouraging way.\u201d It slowly started to tackle their mathphobia.<\/span><\/p>\n The scientists believe that more research is required to determine whether the one-on-one sessions were effective in reducing the typical anxiety partly because the students had no fear of having to perform in front of classmates or others. <\/span><\/p>\n Boise State University in Idaho offers a number of useful suggestions for both math tutors and students with math anxiety. <\/span><\/p>\nHow to Help Your Children in Math?<\/span><\/h2>\n
Research on the Benefits of Math Tutoring<\/span><\/h2>\n
Help Your Children be Successful in Math <\/span><\/h2>\n
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Test Anxiety and Math<\/span><\/h2>\n
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Math Anxiety and the Role of Parents<\/span><\/h2>\n
Anxious Math Parents<\/span><\/h2>\n
What the Research on Math Anxiety Tells Us<\/span><\/h2>\n
The Impact of New Ways of Learning<\/span><\/h2>\n
How Parents Can Help<\/span><\/h2>\n
What About Math Tests<\/span><\/h2>\n
Tutoring Relieves Math Anxiety<\/span><\/h2>\n
What is math anxiety?<\/span><\/h2>\n
Overcoming math anxiety<\/span><\/h2>\n
Tips for Tutors and Students<\/span><\/h2>\n
Tutors:<\/span><\/h2>\n
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Students:<\/span><\/h2>\n
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