A fascinating piece of research has just come out of the Stanford School of Medicine that confirms what seemed likely: math-specific fear interferes with the brain's information-processing capacity and its ability to reason through a math problem. In other words, math anxiety leads to decreased mental functioning in areas of problem solving, memory, and numerical reasoning when trying to engage in mathematical thinking!What are the implications for classroom practice? First, we need to identify when students are experiencing math anxiety. Second, we need to educate students about the neurological impact that anxiety has on their brains (since it actually decreases their ability to successfully solve math problems) - we already know we don't like the experience of anxiety, but we need to understand how it actually affects us. Third, we need to teach students strategies to manage that anxiety.
One strategy I have been utilizing recently in my own practice of mindfulness (drawn from my reading of Fully Present: The art and science of mindfulness) that I think has potential application here is "R.A.I.N." R = recognize the emotion or experience. A = accept the emotion's existence (rather than suppress, repress, or fight it). I = investigate how the emotion makes you feel, on a physical level (not intellectual) - does your jaw get tight, breathing short, foot start to bounce, etc? N = non-identify, or tell yourself that this emotion and accompanying physical sensation is temporary and non-permanent, and that you are not that experience.
No comments:
Post a Comment