School Based Practices to Address High Rates of Math Anxiety

Abstract

High levels of anxiety towards mathematics are prevalent in learners from an early age into college, and in many areas of the world. The most common result of mathematics anxiety is avoidance of math courses. With today’s dependence on technology, educational systems must find a way to combat this problem. This paper will review and critically assess literature on mathematics anxiety with an aim of identifying school based factors that lead to or increase math anxiety. A teacher training program will be developed to address the school based factors that are identified with math anxiety. Tactics will be suggested for the classroom and society as a whole that can control, reduce, and alleviate the problem. With lower levels of math anxiety, it is hoped that our educational system can increase its production of students with strong skills and confidence in mathematics.