Causes of Math Anxiety Math anxious teachers in elementary (and sometimes middle) schools Teaching techniques Anxiety modeling Increased demand on wor
{"Image DocumentName": "Causes of Math AnxietyMath anxious teachers in elementary (and sometimes middle) schools. Teaching techniques.", "Image ImageDescription": "Anxiety modeling. Increased demand on working memory, beginning in fourth grade. A vicious cycle of poor learning and heightened anxiety. However, studies show that 72% of the negative math experiences that arise in early-middle primary school are attributable to the teacher, rather than math content, family attitudes, or peers (Uusimaki & Nason, 2004). THIS LAST SENTENCE NEEDS CLARIFICATION. One of the most common ways for math anxiety to develop in the elementary or middle school classroom is by teacher modeling of math anxious behaviors (Gresham, 2007; Tobias, 1998; Vinson, 2001). Anxiety is a background emotion, which we exhibit unconsciously through body posture and movements, minimal changes in amount and speed of eye movements, and the degree of contraction of facial muscles (Damasio, 1999). These minimal changes are what children pick up on and react to, creating a learning environment where math is depicted as a subject to be avoided at all costs. Indeed, elementary school teachers who score higher on measures of math anxiety spend less time preparing for math lessons and less time teaching math, modeling this math avoidance (Brady & Bowd, 2005). Math-anxious teachers also tend to focus on teaching skills, rather than concepts (Norwood, 1994), an important part of teaching for understanding.", "Image XResolution": "37", "Image YResolution": "37", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Centimeter", "Image Software": "SlidePlayer", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered"}