What can be done to improve attitudes towards maths?

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What can be done to improve attitudes towards maths?
There is a stigma around Mathematics and as children get older they tend to lose interest in the subject, females in particular (Anon, 2008, p.9). Parents play a big part in their children’s attitudes as some parents may stereo type and influence their children into what subjects, roles and paths that they should pursue (Anon, 2008, p.9) and socialisation from the home is the primary form so they will imitate their parents, see them as role models and have the same beliefs and adapt the same way of thinking as their parents Baumeister (1986) notes that family socialisation gives a child an identity, when a child is young they are easily influenced, therefore primary socialisation is the most effective to them.
Math anxiety is also something that people are unaware of which also needs to be helped in order to change attitudes towards maths. Kirkland experienced Math anxiety with one of her students and she found that it was a lot of panic and fear as soon as the change of subject she felt the student became a complete different person (Kirkland, 2016, p.11) which fit into the description of math anxiety, “a feeling of tension, apprehension, or fear that interferes with mathematics performance’’ (Ashcraft, 2002). “The key to enthusing pupils about problem-solving is removing the main barrier that prevents independent thought, and that is fear’’ (Tiley-Nunn, 2014, p.10), this fear of not understanding a maths problem, not being able to keep up with the work, stuck on a question but too afraid to ask for help or embarrassed to be the only one to not understand this is very common as I experienced this myself and from talking to many peers this is the same for them also but in that moment of fear and anxiety feeling alone. To support these students Kirkland believed having teachers trained in order to help with such issues and also having the students be observed would be a good way to monitor the situation as it can be difficult to understand or be aware for teachers to see who is struggling sometimes (2016, p.12).
In the National Curriculum in England, teachers should develop pupils’ numeracy and mathematical reasoning in all subjects so that they understand and appreciate the importance of mathematics and treat it as any other subject (DfE, 2014), as teachers may put a stigma on maths themselves without realising thinking it will be a least favourite as my teachers would say, ‘Sorry guys, time for an hour of maths now’ making the children instinctually have a negative thought about maths.
The subject must be taught to students as it contains important life skills, they can relate their ‘understanding of probability to the notions of risk and uncertainty, also understand the cycle of collecting, presenting and analysing data’ (DfE, 2014) These skills can be applied to every day life as well as their structured life of work or education and help give multiple solutions of problems and make something complex a lot simpler, which is how teachers should implement their approach when teaching maths so the pupils can see the relevance maths has on their lives.
Wales have developed the Literacy and Numeracy Framework to help in the educational attainment in these areas of study improve as on the PISA tests Wales is the worst in the UK the OCED found that Wales were nearly 30 points of the average score in maths with the other countries ahead in all three core subjects in Maths, English and Science (Hume, 2016).
The aims for numeracy help to increase student’s confidence in maths and developing their mathematical reasoning (DfE, 2013, p.9). The Literacy and Numeracy Framework wants to help develop the pupils, measuring, data and everyday possible sue of maths skills and to help and ensure the absorption of these skills Wales have adapted a cross curricula approach allowing numeracy along with other subjects and other skills be taught along with all subjects (Welsh Government, 2014).
When I was taught maths in school I found it very uninteresting, difficult and didn’t understand the reason behind being taught a lot of the stuff therefore I did not pay full attention. I now regret being more interested in maths and paying more attention to maths, as I am now an adult I use maths in a lot of my life, in work, in university, at home, when I cook and the list can go on, I also now have to redo my maths GCSE as I need a B in it to get onto my one of my university courses. Michael Gove MP believes, ‘Mathematical knowledge is the most precious gift an education can bestow’ (Vorderman et al, 2011), I now understand the importance of maths and if this guidance and this information is given to students they will be more interested also the key to have pupils engaged is to make it more enjoyable by adding games, making it competitive, having rewards also even changing environments to help the lesson be more stimulating and attractive to the students. Using games and relevant context the pupils can relate to is also a very good way to keep them engaged, games such as basing work sheets on popular movies, games and characters, playing celebrity top trumps, matching the cards and using percentages (Drabble, 2013) this can also portray to the students how maths is used in every day life as these little activities showcase a numerous amount of different maths topics. Outdoor learning has been proving to be very stimulating for the child and has received very little attention (Fägerstam and Samuelsson, 2014). Sandseter (2007) says that we should allow children to play in “physically and emotionally stimulating and challenging environments.” The developmental affects are very good for the pupils and being outside allows the child to experience and see different ways maths can be sued again and the teacher is there to highlight this to the children and make them understand this as, The natural environment allows children to understand the real world and gives them the capacity to solve problems. (Staempfli, 2009).


Reference List
Ashcraft, M. H. (2002) Math anxiety: Personal, educational, and cognitive consequences. Current Directions In Psychological Science, 11, No.5, 181- 185.
Anonymous (2008) Parent Attitudes Influence Their Children's Attitudes Toward Math and Science: Gifted Child Today; Thousand Oaks. Vol 31:2, p.9
Baumeister, R. (1986) Identity as adaptation to social, cultural, and historical context: Journal of Adolescence. 19, 405–416.
Department for Education. (2013) Mathematics programmes of study: key stages 1 and 2 National curriculum in England. Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/335158/PRIMARY_national_curriculum_-_Mathematics_220714.pdf [Accessed April 2019]
Department for Education. (2014) National curriculum in England: framework for key stages 1 to 4. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-framework-for-key-stages-1-to-4/the-national-curriculum-in-england-framework-for-key-stages-1-to-4#numeracy-and-mathematics [Accessed April 2019]
Drabble, E. (2013) How to teach … maths creatively. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/education/teacher-blog/2013/jan/28/maths-lessons-teaching-resources-schools [Accessed April 2019]
Emilia Fägerstam & Joakim Samuelsson (2014) Learning arithmetic outdoors in junior high school – influence on performance and self-regulating skills, Education 3-13, 42:4, 419-431, DOI: 10.1080/03004279.2012.713374
Hume, Colette. (2016) Pisa: Wales still worst in UK in world education tests. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-38208738 [Accessed April 2019]
Kirkland, H. (2016) 'Maths Anxiety': Isn’t it just a dislike for learning mathematics?  Available at: https://learn.cardiffmet.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/937132/mod_resource/content/1/Maths%20Anxiety-%20Isn%E2%80%99t%20it%20just%20a%20dislike%20for%20learning%20mathematics%3F.pdf [Accessed April 2019]
Tiley-Nunn, N. and Beadle, P. (2014) Primary Math’s: Anyone can feed skittles to sharks. London: Independent Thinking Press.
Sandseter, E. B. H. (2007). Categorizing risky play – How can we identify risk-taking in children’s play? European Early Child Education Research Journal, 15(2), 237-252. [Retrieved February 2019] from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13502930701321733#.UygSNM6YcRA
Staempfli, M. B. (2009.) Reintroducing adventure into children’s outdoor play environments. Environment and Behaviour, 41 (2), PP.268–280.
Vorderman, C. Gove, M. Budd, C. Dunne, R. Hart, M. Porkess, R  (2011) A world-class mathematics education for all our young people. Available at:  http://www.tsm-resources.com/pdf/VordermanMathsReport.pdf [Accessed April 2019]
Welsh Government. (2014) National Literacy and Numeracy Framework. Available at: https://learning.gov.wales/resources/browse-all/nlnf/?lang=en [Accessed April 2019]




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