Tell me mathematics and I will forget Show me mathematics and I will remember Involve meand I will u

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Tell me mathematics and I will forgetShow me
mathematics and I will rememberInvolve meand I
will understand mathematics.If I understand
mathematics, I will be less likely to have maths
anxiety.And if I become a teacher of
mathematics, I can thus begin a cycle that will
produce less maths-anxious students for
generations to come.

• W. V. Williams, 1988

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Maths Anxiety in Third Year Primary Student
Teachers

• Gillian Frankcom
• The University of Auckland

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Sample questions

• 0.1 x 840 is the same as
• A 840 1
• B 1 x 840
• C 1 x 8400
• D 840 10
• E 0.10 x 84

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• Which letter in the number line above names a
  fraction where the numerator is nearly half the
  denominator?

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• Ms. Harris was working with her class on
  divisibility rules. She told her class that a
  number is divisible by 4 if and only if the last
  two digits of the number are divisible by 4. One
  of her students asked her why the rule for 4
  worked. She asked the other students if they
  could come up with a reason, and several possible
  reasons were proposed. Which of the following
  statements comes closest to explaining the reason
  for the divisibility rule for 4? (Mark ONE
  answer.)
• Four is an even number, and odd numbers are not
  divisible by even numbers.
• The number 100 is divisible by 4 (and also 1000,
  10,000, etc.).
• Every other even number is divisible by 4, for
  example, 24 and 28 but not 26.
• d) It only works when the sum of the last two
  digits is an even number.

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• Mr Lewis asked his students to divide 6/8 by
  1/2. Charlie said I have an easy method Mr Lewis.
  I just divide numerators and denominators. I
  get 6/4 which is correct. Mr Lewis was not
  surprised by this as he had seen it before. What
  did he know?
• a) He knew that Charlies method was wrong, even
  though he happened to get the right answer for
  this problem.
• b) He knew that Charlies answer was actually
  wrong
• He knew that Charlies method was right, but
  that for many numbers this would produce a messy
  answer.
• d) He knew that Charlies method only works for
  some fractions.

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The words of Preservice teachers

• I have a fear of maths and it does worry me a bit
  as a future teacher
• I am not sure when maths began to frighten me
• I have always been scared of doing maths because
  I always think I will fail it

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More words

• I almost failed school cert maths but did
  remarkably well in sixth form, even though I
  hated it. In seventh form I did calculus and
  managed to scrape a pass. It was my most hated
  class and I never went.
• Mathematics was taught and viewed as a necessary
  evil, and as a result many people viewed it
  negatively

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Graph of test results against maths anxiety
levels
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Mastery Experiences?Success does not seem to
equal lower maths anxiety
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Ideal Student?

• Low maths anxiety
• High maths self-efficacy
• Strong personal content knowledge
• Mathematics past year 11
• Positive experiences at school
• Succeeding (As) in current degree course
• Actively enjoys doing Mathematics

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Implications

• Levels of maths anxiety could represent a
  significant barrier to improving mathematics
  teaching and learning in the primary school.
• as teachers teach as taught ..

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Now to know mathematics is one thing, and to be
able to teach it communicate it to those at a
lower conceptual level is quite another and I
believe that it is the latter which is most
lacking at the moment. As a result, many people
acquire at school a lifelong dislike, even fear,
of mathematics. Skemp (1971)