Did you ever come across a bright student who performed well in all his classes but ran  into great difficulty in areas related to math or numbers? It could be a sign of possible math anxiety.

 Math anxiety is defined as a specific phobia composed of the test anxiety components of worry and emotionality and a unique aspect, numerical anxiety.

Math test anxiety refers to a student's apprehension about anticipating, taking and receiving the results of a math test. It includes aspects of emotionality and the physiological responses of an anxiety reaction and worry combined with the negative thought patterns that accompany an anxiety reaction.

Numerical anxiety refers to the feeling of apprehension a student experiences when manipulating numbers in problem-solving situations.

Students with math anxiety often report the classic symptoms that typically accompany an anxiety reaction. They may report the physiological symptoms such as stomach or headache as well as negative thought patterns such as: "I can't do this, I'm stupid, I'm going to fail this 'test!"

However, students with math anxiety experience something more than the classic symptoms of emotionality and worry. They may also lack psychomotor and mental flexibility and fail to visualize and think about more than one way to solve a math problem.

Math anxious Students restrict themselves to one area and aspect of the problem-solving field. There is little attempt at trial-and-error learning or using alternative problem- solving approaches. They often give up easily and skip problems that appear mildly difficult. They do not ask questions when stymied, but remain silent until others offer help.

Students with math anxiety are, in a sense, mentally and physically paralyzed by their anxiety. Thus, math anxious students not only fear the actual performance of math problems, but also the substance and content of math itself. Students with math anxiety are experiencing a battle on two fronts: they have to cope with the aspects of test anxiety and a fear of number manipulation.

Due to the complex nature of math anxiety it is more difficult to pinpoint than test anxiety. The remediation of math anxiety must take into account the component of math test anxiety, the specific math content, or both.

Treating math anxiety may include some modifications typically associated with test anxiety. These could include extended time to complete math tests and assignments, small group or one-on-one assessment to reduce distractions and anxiety or fragmenting a math test where portions of it can be given over severe time periods. Other educators advocate an approach that allows the student to complete a part of the test, such as only the odd or only the even-numbered questions.

Remediating numerical anxiety must take into account two variables: The nature of numerical manipulation and math instruction. Students with math anxiety often experience frequent and intense math failure from an early age. As a consequence, they have little or no experience of math success. They often lack the skills and self-confidence to perform adequately on math tests or assignments. To counteract this situation, instructional approaches are required that increase math skills and confidence. To achieve this aim, several methods have been proposed including self-directed / mastery learning and direct instruction, which uses an expository teaching method.

In a self directed/mastery approach, students learn math at their own pace and instruction level moving from one topic to another as each concept is understood. Advocates of this approach claim students attain a greater sense of competence and self efficacy towards math and reduce their level of math anxiety.

In the direct instructional expository method, well structured and controlled instructional plans are developed for math learning. The teacher clearly outlines the goal of each lesson providing a short summary of the previous lesson. This is followed by the presentation of the current lesson, complete with illustrative examples. Then a review of the current lesson is provided, highlighting the main points and ending with a student assignment which is carefully explained.

Evaluations should be predictable and conducted weekly to determine student progress. Advocates of this teaching method believe that structure is the key to learning math and reducing anxiety.

John Zbornik is a school psychologist with the Lakewood City Schools in Lakewood, Ohio. He can be reached at (216) 227-5130. This article appeared in Today's School Psychologist, December 2001.
©2001 LRP Publications. Reproduced with permission.