By Ashley Mussbacher (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: October 23, 2013
In elementary school, teachers used to make us write short math quizzes that were timed, forcing us to complete a page full of multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction within the span of 60 seconds. It was hell. I spent most of the time starting down at my sparkly-blue running shoes and listening to the sound of 20 pencils scratching hastily at the paper. From that moment on, I hated math.
Back then if you couldn’t write a test, no matter the subject, it meant you hadn’t done the work, or prepared enough for it. That giant red “F” on top of the page used to mean your own failure, and your responsibility. It was an embarrassment. And it was absolutely terrifying to show it to your parents.
It was enough of a slap in the face when I failed that math quiz to make me try harder so I wouldn’t have to go through it all again.
Now it’s called math anxiety.
This “fear” of math has been studied since the 1970s, and labelled a phenomenon. Several different websites offer tips for reducing the symptoms of math anxiety, which include asking questions of your teacher, relying on practice rather than memorization, and developing responsibility for your own successes and failures. These are all great suggestions when it comes to any subject, but there’s one problem: these tips assume the symptoms are the cause.
In 2009, Service Canada posted a report that studied secondary school teachers and employment rates. It did not come as a surprise to find that “school boards are complaining about the shortage of qualified staff in some subjects, a shortage due to lack of graduates in those subjects.” The subjects listed were French, mathematics, science, and English as a second language. So, is it possible the lack of math professionals in teaching might be affecting student learning outcomes? Well, that’s a no-brainer.
York University’s dean of education Ron Owston, in the Globe and Mail said that “the arts are always a valuable foundation for teaching. However, we do need more applicants to our programs with math and science backgrounds.”
[pullquote]
“When I look at a math problem, my mind goes completely blank. I feel stupid, and I can’t remember how to do even the simplest things.”
– quote from Math Academy
[/pullquote]
According to University Affairs, a school district in Ontario has about 161 positions to fill each year, many of them part-time. On any given year since 2005 the number of applications received to that school board alone add up into thousands.
Math Academy states that Russia and Germany treat mathematics as an essential part of literacy, and “an educated person would be chagrined to confess ignorance of basic mathematics.” Both of these countries have ranked highest in mathematics for centuries. No surprise there.
We are in a vicious cycle. Students in their primary and secondary education are likely being taught math by teachers who do not have math degrees, and in turn the students develop mediocre calculation and problem-solving skills. If they move onto post-secondary education they apply to the arts, believing that they are incapable of math-related subjects, and therefore the education system is bombarded with massive amounts of art faculty resumes.
This doesn’t mean that “F” I received on my math quiz in elementary school was my teacher’s fault, nor does it mean I’m incompetent in mathematics.
Our country’s education system needs to take into consideration that people learn math at different levels, and by different methods, and throwing a teacher into an over-stuffed classroom of 35 students to regurgitate the textbook at them is not enough.
There needs to be more support in both elementary and secondary school for math courses; group work during class time that consists of solving practice problems, short unit-oriented lectures that do not take up the entire block, and discussions of different study methods. In short, communication needs to be improved.
We have to understand that slapping a label on a widespread problem such as “math anxiety” is not going to fix it, rather we will just bury it further and further under the rug.
