2008 Woodie Awards
Stress-relief aids math education
By Cassandra McCarty
Issue date: 11/13/08 Section: TruLife
The feeling is familiar: the sweat gathering on your palms, the panic throughout your entire body as the teacher hands you an empty test. It's math anxiety, and although common within the walls of Violette Hall, three professors have studied its effects at Moberly Area Community College.
Calm: Calming Anxiety to Learn Mathematics is a faculty forum that took place last Thursday night in Magruder Hall. With a grant from the Students Together Educating Peers program, Scott Alberts, associate professor of mathematics, has researched the anxiety math causes for students.
"Some students are afraid of math the way some people are afraid of spiders," Alberts said. "The math classes here at Truman would freak out the students at Moberly - we aren't designed for them, so what can we do about it, how can we help the students?"
Although Alberts' goal is to help relieve students' anxiety in math classes at any school, he and his colleagues have done their research using controlled math sections at MACC.
"At first it was me and some students measuring math anxiety, and that's what we did, but anyone at Truman is fine because of their high school classes," Alberts said. "Community college students have actual anxiety about the math. Our students are much more worried about public embarrassment."
Alberts said MACC's math classes are set up with four sections before entering college algebra for the wider distribution of the students and that many of those students are in need of basic review. Alberts has developed techniques to benefit those who suffer anxiety from math.
"Visualizing success is another part of the anxiety," Alberts said. "If you think about that anxiety when you go into the room, you are going to have that feeling of dread. The other thing we talk about is the model of striving. Most anything you think about works the same. You build up over time, which is the model of learning."
Steven Voss, associate professor of psychology, developed further techniques to overcome math anxiety. Voss said modifying Cognitive Behavior Therapy is his main focus. Cognitive Behavior Therapy involves reorganizing debilitating behaviors and learning how to replace destructive thoughts with beneficial ones.
Calm: Calming Anxiety to Learn Mathematics is a faculty forum that took place last Thursday night in Magruder Hall. With a grant from the Students Together Educating Peers program, Scott Alberts, associate professor of mathematics, has researched the anxiety math causes for students.
"Some students are afraid of math the way some people are afraid of spiders," Alberts said. "The math classes here at Truman would freak out the students at Moberly - we aren't designed for them, so what can we do about it, how can we help the students?"
Although Alberts' goal is to help relieve students' anxiety in math classes at any school, he and his colleagues have done their research using controlled math sections at MACC.
"At first it was me and some students measuring math anxiety, and that's what we did, but anyone at Truman is fine because of their high school classes," Alberts said. "Community college students have actual anxiety about the math. Our students are much more worried about public embarrassment."
Alberts said MACC's math classes are set up with four sections before entering college algebra for the wider distribution of the students and that many of those students are in need of basic review. Alberts has developed techniques to benefit those who suffer anxiety from math.
"Visualizing success is another part of the anxiety," Alberts said. "If you think about that anxiety when you go into the room, you are going to have that feeling of dread. The other thing we talk about is the model of striving. Most anything you think about works the same. You build up over time, which is the model of learning."
Steven Voss, associate professor of psychology, developed further techniques to overcome math anxiety. Voss said modifying Cognitive Behavior Therapy is his main focus. Cognitive Behavior Therapy involves reorganizing debilitating behaviors and learning how to replace destructive thoughts with beneficial ones.
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