How to Ease Math Anxiety In The Classroom?

The following are simple ways that you can adopt in your classroom to help your students enjoy solving math –

Start With The Mindset
Students tend to dislike math because of its complicated nature. However, once you catch the concept, it turns out to be very simple. However, most children get discouraged when they don’t get the right answer on the first attempt.

Many students categorize themselves as “non-math people” or “math people.” Breaking free from this perspective, on the other hand, can assist teachers and students avoid making math class a source of worry and anxiety.

Tell Math Stories To Your Students
Share tales of women and people of color in arithmetic, as well as individuals who struggled and fought before becoming successful, to help children recognize varied role models in math. Discuss mathematicians who work in diverse fields, such as data science or virtual reality, to help students better understand the discipline’s many applications. Children are naturally drawn to investigate the math around them.

Start With Simple Problems
While teaching concepts, students tend to grasp them better with solved examples. Teach them the concepts using simple examples. Give them similar sums to practice on as a worksheet. Solving these will boost their confidence and also enhance their understanding of the concept. This will assist them to apply the same concept in more difficult sums.

Associating The Concepts With Real Life
The human mind tends to retain information better when we associate a concept with another. For example, to remember the color green, you associate it with a tree’s leaf. Similarly, associating concepts like sets and squares to sudoku puzzles will help the students to take on a fun perspective to math and enhance retention.

Diversity In Problem Solving
Teachers in active math classrooms frequently demonstrate several approaches to solving the same issue and encourage students to come up with their own answers. The more strategies kids are exposed to, the better their understanding of the topics will be.

Experimental Learning
One of the best ways of understanding a concept is when students try working out a problem on their own. Encourage pupils to explore alternate ideas and then discuss the many choices as a class to strengthen their critical thinking skills. Consider allowing students to resubmit a small portion of their work to alleviate the sting of incorrect answers. For example, assign a set of sums to the students after teaching a concept and let them come up with their own different ways of solving the same sum.

Math Groups
Remember how we all enjoyed combined studies with our friends? Your students will enjoy that too, especially when allowed to do so in the classroom. Pick a day where you are bored and label it as peer learning day! Ask your students to form groups and give them practice worksheets with complex problems. Give names to the groups like ‘Famous Five’ or ‘Secret Seven’. This will make the students more enthusiastic. The students will interact with each other and discuss various possible solutions to the problem. This will make them feel more confident about possible solutions and will also encourage them to make mistakes without fearing failure.

Practice And Practice
Math is a practical subject that requires a lot of practice. Give your students homework regularly. Assign sums that they will have to do and submit on a weekly basis. This will help them to improve critical thinking, problem-solving, and reasoning skills. Practicing math sums will also make them comfortable while solving sums in the class or in tests.

Involve Technology
Technology always tends to attract children. Using digital tools such as tablets, interactive walls, ready reckoners, etc will encourage them to mindfully learn math with enthusiasm. Gamification is one of the best ways to motivate students to learn competitively. It not only introduces healthy competition among students but also makes learning fun.

Wrapping Up
Not all students learn at the same pace. Have patience with each one of them and give them constructive feedback. Hold remedial classes for those who still find it difficult to grasp in the classroom pace. Math education does not have to be stressful for children. Teachers can redefine math as a creative, empowering tool that is applicable in everyday life.