Does the mere mention of the word “calculus” make you break a sweat? Do terms like “chain rule,” “differential equation” and “stochastic process” make your heart sink with despair?
If so, you may suffer from math anxiety, a common ailment afflicting college students who feel unprepared to tackle the subject.
Organizations and professors alike have acknowledged the condition and are trying to find new ways of treating it.
“Math anxiety is not universal certainly, but yes, I do believe it’s a real thing,” said Tina Straley, executive director of the Mathematical Association of America.
She said the root cause of the anxiety is the rigorous nature of mathematics.
“In mathematics, students feel that they have to perform to a certain standard, that they have to get an answer. For example, it’s not something that’s easy to fudge,” she said.
Professors cited students’ past difficulties with math as a key cause of math anxiety.
“The causes are different for different students,” said Professor Alvard Arazyan, an introductory calculus professor at Boston University. “For some students it’s a poor math background. For some of them, it’s just a difficult experience even though they have a good background.
“For some it’s not just about math but about their busy schedules. But I notice in general that they are really anxious about math in particular.”
To make matters worse, the nature of math – with each lesson dependent on previous ones – makes it difficult, if not impossible, for students who fall behind to catch up.
“If students miss one or two lectures in math, they get completely lost,” Arazyan said. “It’s not like they can catch up like in other subjects.”
BU economics professor David Rapson offered a different explanation for math anxiety.
“Math is like a puzzle, you start putting little pieces together and you learn it bit by bit,” he said. “Sometimes you need a more advanced tool in economics than your math background supports, so you learn that tool but there still might be gaps which can result in math anxiety.”
While the existence of math anxiety is widely recognized, there is no clear solution. Common prescriptions, such as calling on students to work out problems in front of the class and encouraging more participation in general, run into practical problems and student stubbornness.
“It’s kind of impractical, with a class of 50 people, to be pulling students up to the board,” Rapson said. “Not to mention the fact that in my experience in trying to do that, it’s been a disaster. I feel like the students really don’t want to come up to the board and they feel put on the spot.”
Straley suggested that math teachers should adopt teaching techniques that are more “student-centered, more learner-centered,” such as developing classes “where students work together and don’t feel quite so alone.”
Arazyan, whose average class ranges between 80 and 100 students, said she believes having smaller classes is helpful.
“I’ve noticed over years of experience that a smaller class always means I see better [work] from the students,” she said. “When you know the individual students personally, it helps a lot.”