Decreasing Math Anxiety Through a Quadratics Unit

Abstract

Anxiety related to the learning of mathematics is referred to as math anxiety and has been shown to have a negative influence on student performance. Research reveals that math anxiety is something that can be unlearned and informs about the potential causes and treatments of math anxiety in the mathematics classroom. A majority of math anxiety experienced by students has been caused by teachers’ repetitious teaching styles. Research presents various teaching strategies that have helped teachers when working with students who have math anxiety. These strategies include writing, class discussions, cooperative groups, kinesthetic activities, use of manipulatives, and various, frequent, and untimed assessments. Based on these findings, a unit plan on quadratics has been created to utilize all of these strategies and to demonstrate to the reader and to mathematics teachers that there are specific pedagogical strategies that teachers can use to help decrease math anxiety in their students. Keywords: math anxiety, quadratics