I am going to be honest. I have fears. Many fears. I sometimes forget to just take a deep breath and relax. What I do not fear however, is math. Math is fun! And sometimes Funny!!!
I ate some pie ;) Image from internet
Is math challenging? Absolutely, but that is no reason to fear it. But even if you do, fear can be constructive when we channel it to recognize and address our concerns. So many people, women in particular, have a fear of math and it gets in the way of our potential. The thing is, it isn't so much the skills as it is the psychology of fear that keeps us from performing our best at math. Here is a neat study that shows how our thinking changes our brain and behavior and how reducing anxiety can increase math performance http://www.edweek.org/media/math-anxiety.pdf One of my friends from West Africa noted that American society tells girls they must fear math or be bad at it, both of which build on each other negatively. In her village, there are no such notions and the girls are in charge of numbers! So math anxiety, while socially constructed and physiologically real, can be reduced! Do you want to work on your math anxiety? There are many resources available such as:
Math Anxiety Management Lesson http://www.mayland.edu/aca111/ManagingMath.pdf for students and reducing math anxiety teaching tips http://archives.evergreen.edu/masterstheses/Accession89-10MIT/Hellum-Alexander_AMIT2010.pdf for teachers.
Until next time, have a gr8 day! ;)
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