What Is Math Anxiety In Correlation With Common Core Mathematics

Math Anxiety in Correlation with Common Core Mathematics If you are a parent, have you ever tried to help your child with math homework and not been able to because you don’t understand it yourself? If you are the student, do you ever look at your parents and think, “if they can’t do this then how am I supposed to”? These are very normal questions that many parents and students face. The reaction to these particular questions is either to blame the teacher or to push on the idea that the Common Core Mathematics system is much too difficult and needs to be removed. However, math anxiety is never acknowledged alongside Common Core Mathematics, and it needs to be. The resistance of Common Core Mathematics by students and parents is caused by
For example, 1+1 is easily looked upon and solved within a few seconds, but when we look at 34x23, this becomes more difficult. If we would add more operations to this procedure, it would begin to look very overwhelming (i.e. 34x23-45+21). Why is this? It is because larger math equations are used less frequently and are “stored in memory at lower levels of strength”, therefore we can recall 1+1 because it is a simple equation. When a person is evaluating a larger math problem, the person’s memory is working to remember certain numerical strategies. When the person starts to experience the anxiety that comes with not being able to figure out the problem accurately and efficiently, the working memory starts to focus more on dealing with the anxiety than finding the solution to the math problem
Common Core is just the “cover-up” for a bigger problem that should be dealt with. Math anxiety is mostly overlooked because it is seen as something that is made up, but through this research, math anxiety has been proven a real and prevalent thing. In the future, my hope is that Common Core stay and math anxiety be seen as the real issue at hand. The given solutions to math anxiety will work, but they are going to take a lot of time, so they might not be the most efficient. There is not enough evidence at this time to give a grand solution that is going to be effective, efficient, and ultimately solve the problem of math anxiety. There is still more that needs to be