Understand math angst

As a math tutor, I once received a phone call from a parent feeling so desperate for help that she held out the phone, so I could hear the shouting match between her son, Chase, and her husband as he attempted to help him with math homework. It sounded like the chaotic bedlam of a Jerry Springer soundstage!

Tearful homework dramas are common. Chase became overly emotional, said he hated math, and his frazzled parents said they were “losing it,” while trying to help. They felt that hope was nowhere. Throw a demanding teacher or challenging math curriculum into the mix, and it can add up to math mayhem.

Math angst

The majority of the students I tutor are like Chase. They may have lost all joy for math, fallen behind, and then feel hopeless about catching up. Many students find it difficult to engage in the abstract thinking expected at advanced levels of math. There is also the “cool” factor. It may be socially acceptable to be bad at math. Few students brag they cannot read, yet there is little stigma attached to “I can’t do math.”

Parents feel discouraged, too. Your own struggle with math may have left you feeling helpless or thinking that some folks get it and some don’t. In my experience, when students learn to do math and start to experience success with it, they begin to like it.

While a magic bullet for math angst has yet to materialize, there is always hope for your child — even if he is failing. Everyone can get better at math!

High anxiety plus low confidence

Taylor Swenson could barely speak during our first tutoring session. Her eyes filled with tears as she described feeling overwhelmed on exam days. She said she felt clueless about where to begin. Test anxiety is common for students like Taylor who lack confidence.

Confronted with repeated failure, math anxiety may be masked with callousness (“I’ll never use this stuff anyway”), anger (“It’s too difficult!”), or false indifference (“Whatever”). With so many mixed feelings, it is no surprise that even the most easygoing of parents finds it unnerving to help with math. Sometimes tutoring can help.

Why kids shut down

Children who struggle with math often “shut down” in math class to avoid painful feelings and defeat. They have trouble seeing the meaningfulness of solving abstract problems so removed from their real life. They have not lived long enough to develop an appreciation for the beauty of the logic in math. So it becomes a vicious cycle of poor performance, shutting down, failure of new material to get anchored, etc.

If your child is caught in the cycle, he may need to feel safe before he will open up. A warm, friendly environment is essential for improvement in math. Instead of diving right into solving problems or rehearsing math facts, a good tutor will take time to build trust with your student. The tutor will explain why investing effort into math is worthwhile. If this sounds touchy-feely (“I want my child to PERFORM better in math, not necessarily FEEL better about it,”) be assured that addressing anxiety and safety is a critical step toward improved performance and grades.

Eight strategies to build math confidence

While tutoring sessions are tailored to meet the needs of each individual student, the following strategies are always woven into my work. They may be used as a framework for discussions with a math tutor or teacher.

• Engage students in a working relationship. Most students need an answer to “Why bother with math?” The objective in tutoring is not to pour into the student all the formulas, theorems, and math expertise of the tutor. Better performance in math is more often a result of seeds planted in tutoring, hard work, and a strong relationship with the tutor.

• Explore strengths and obstacles to learning. Frequently, math teachers have suggestions for how a student may improve. Chase’s teacher reported his tendency to drift off during lecture time and his inability to get started on assigned work. Tutoring sessions will reveal a student’s learning style (such as visual or auditory), his impairments (never mastered math facts, bad note taking, disorganized), and his strengths (abstract thinker, good at mental math, etc.).

• Set them up for success. When possible, students should be given choices. Rather than articulating immediately how a math problem should be approached, students may be asked, “What math operation could be applied here?” It becomes deeply satisfying for them when they can truly own their success. This is different than being the submissive recipient of a tutor’s help.

• Improve math vocabulary. Math teachers are sometimes pressured to squeeze a math lesson into a half hour, leaving little time for vocabulary instruction. However, students perform better when they understand terms such as product, quotient, equivalent fraction, average, etc.

• Provide tools to seek help. Vocabulary for math is a valuable tool for soliciting help and answers quickly and effectively from teachers and textbooks. When vocabulary is weak, a student may say to the teacher, “I don’t know what to do with these fraction thing-ies,” whereas a developed vocabulary helps him express, “I keep forgetting how to find a common denominator.”

• Explore self-image. With repeated failure in math, students may become vulnerable to negative “self-talk.” They may tell themselves, “I’m just dumb” or “My teacher thinks I’m bad at math.” Chase’s negative catch phrase was “I’ve NEVER been good at math.” Parents may unwittingly reinforce such negativity when they say “I was never good at math, either.” Instead, give productive encouragement such as: “Nobody is perfect, a math grade does not reflect intelligence, and math can be learned in different ways.”

• Restructure counter-productive self-talk. Taylor’s reading comprehension skills were unfortunately weak for word problems. However, the negative “I’m horrible at word problems!” became “Reading comprehension is tricky for me, so I have to draw pictures to get what the problem is asking.” If a student’s memory is poor for recalling the rules about adding decimals, “I’ll never remember all this!” can become “Until I master adding decimals, I’ll refer to my notes.” Even subtle shifts in thought patterns re-shape math attitudes.

• Acknowledge that there is no substitute for hard work. If there is one mantra my students hear more than any other in tutoring, it is this one: There is just no substitute! Conquering math angst is an honorable quest and never a waste of time.

By the way, Chase won a math achievement award at school last month, and Taylor has a solid A- in the subject!

Michele Ranard is an academic tutor/counselor. She has two children, a master’s degree in counseling, and a blog at cheekychicmama.com.