What is it about?
This study followed a mother and child as they faced "maths anxiety" around homework - and as they overcame that anxiety. The study links maths anxiety - from which many people suffer - with learned helplessness, and suggests ways for families to overcome this learned behaviour.
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Why is it important?
Many people feel anxiety when faced with maths problems, and parents have increasingly reported feeling unable to help their children with their schoolwork - yet we know that parents' engagement in their children's learning is vital to support achievement. This paper suggests how to overcome that anxiety and support parents' engagement with their children's learning in maths.
Perspectives
As a mother, I, too, faced issues in helping my children with their maths work, particularly as they grew older and the maths seemed so very different to what I had learned. The concepts of "maths anxiety" and "learned helplessness" explain a great deal of what I felt, and I wish I'd known then what we found in this paper!
Dr Janet Goodall
Swansea University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Overcoming Mathematical Helplessness and Developing Mathematical Resilience in Parents: An Illustrative Case Study, Creative Education, January 2015, Scientific Research Publishing, Inc,,
DOI: 10.4236/ce.2015.65052.
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