Western researchers zero in on math anxiety

February 08, 2022

Student writing on white board; photo by Katerina Holmes, Pexels

Student writing on white board; photo by Katerina Holmes, (Pexels)

If long division or finding the lowest common denominator makes your kids’ palms sweat, it may be a case math anxiety. And scientists are finding it’s a condition many students around the world are experiencing.

Psychologists at Western University studied data from more than one million students across the globe and found not only is math anxiety a real phenomenon but as a result, performance is also greatly affected.

Student perception of teacher competence and parental homework involvement are both revealed as important predictors of math anxiety in the new global study, led by Western postdoctoral researcher Nathan Tsz Tan Lau, which was published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Read the full story by Jeff Renaud at Western News