Some primary school teachers suffering from 'maths anxiety' - research

Some primary school teachers are modifying their teaching patterns due to "maths anxiety", new research has found.

A study from Julie Whyte, a teacher educator in the Bachelor of Teaching (Primary) programme at EIT Te Pūkenga, found in her study some primary maths school teachers are struggling to do basic equations as they suffer from maths anxiety that stems from when they were students.

"Society as a whole has this thing about maths," Whyte said. "Most people can relate to sitting around a dinner table with friends, and if something came up about reading, no one would say that they couldn't read or hated reading. 

"But maths is different. People say things like: 'Oh no, I'm useless at maths' or 'yes, I hate maths as well. I can't do it.'"

Whyte's doctoral research looked at the personal histories and professional lives of 12 primary teacher participants who self-reported as maths anxious. All participants said they were maths anxious before they started teaching.

"One person, in particular, said they delayed their primary teaching qualification because of their maths anxiety," Whyte said.

She said all 12 participants developed maths teaching anxiety, which is deemed to be a negative response specific to the anticipation of, or involvement with, activity relating to mathematics teaching, or to the beliefs held in relation to perceived competence with teaching mathematics.

The research found teachers came up with strategies to try to manage their maths anxiety, including limiting the level of their teaching to junior classes where maths was considered not too hard. Teachers would also spend long hours preparing for maths teaching, 

"One participant wasn't able to work out the basics of 7 plus what equals 10. A teacher in a professional development environment couldn't work out that 7 plus 3 equals 10," Whyte said.

The anticipation of teaching maths also caused anxiety.

Some teachers would schedule less time for maths or only focus on numbers and statistics and ignore algebra or geometry.

"If something new was added to the timetable - maybe Harold the Giraffe and the truck came along to do Life Ed - then they would shift maths to that time so that maths was the subject that was dropped that day," Whyte said.

Whyte also found teachers were worried their colleagues would find out they are "dumb" at maths.

"Maths anxiety became their focus, so they often missed the opportunity to develop an understanding for and of maths."

The research comes as the Government earlier this year announced a strategy to tackle declining literacy and numeracy rates in children.