[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-595127-105":3,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":81,"doc-detail-595127-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":74,"head_meta":76,"extra_data":78,"updated_unix":80},105,"en","addressing-concerns-related-to-low-student-understanding-in-mathematics-in-manitoba","Addressing Concerns Related to Low Student Understanding in Mathematics in Manitoba","","Students in Manitoba show below-average understanding of mathematics concepts, with quality of instruction and math anxiety among the contributing factors. Low-quality instruction prevents students from developing deep conceptual understanding, while anxiety reduces performance and weakens teaching effectiveness. Mitigation focuses on intentionally designing lessons with deeper thinking tasks and building academically safe classrooms, alongside professional development and appropriate coursework to reduce math anxiety in teachers. Addressing both areas can strengthen students’ mathematical understanding across Manitoba.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/addressing-concerns-related-to-low-student-understanding-in-mathematics-in-manitoba/595127/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/addressing-concerns-related-to-low-student-understanding-in-mathematics-in-manitoba/595127.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"Bulrr","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-29","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",6,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"What two main factors contribute to low student understanding in mathematics in Manitoba?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"Quality of instruction and math anxiety in both students and teachers are identified as key contributors to low understanding and performance.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"How does quality of instruction affect students’ ability to understand math concepts?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"Instruction focused on low-quality rote tasks and surface-level questions limits deep conceptual learning and can reinforce fixed mindsets and negative mathematical identities.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"How can math anxiety in students and teachers be addressed?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"The document suggests building academically safe classrooms to reduce students’ anxiety and providing professional development and suitable coursework for teachers to reduce teachers’ math anxiety, thereby improving instruction.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},595127,1792167926,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,96,101,105,110,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":97,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},8,30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":97,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":131},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":111,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":55,"language":139,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144,"preview_page_count":4},5909892115043,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_6f874abed73319feea01a86fa6f0fab8","REFEREED ARTICLE  \nAddressing Concerns Related to  \nLow Student Understanding in Mathematics in Manitoba  \nT. Scott Dempster  \nAbstract  \nStudents in Manitoba have demonstrated a lower-than-average understanding of mathematics concepts. Two areas that contribute to this level of understanding are quality of instruction and math anxiety in students and teachers. Quality of instruction can be addressed through the intentional design of lessons around quality, deeper thinking tasks. Building academically safe classrooms can improve math anxiety in students. Math anxiety in teachers can be addressed by providing professional development for teachers and appropriate coursework for pre-service teachers, thus also improving the quality of instruction. Focus on these two areas of concern could have positive benefits for increasing students’ understanding of mathematics in Manitoba.  \nStudents in Manitoba have demonstrated a lower-than-average understanding in mathematics concepts when compared to their peers in other provinces, as reported on the PCAP assessment in 2016 (Ballantyne, 2019) and provincial math assessment scores in the 2017/2018 school year (Government of Manitoba, n.d.a, n.d. b, n.d.c.) . It is not possible for students to gain a deep understanding of concepts through low-quality instruction (Krall, 2018) . Furthermore, math anxiety in students leads to lower performance during math class, and in teachers leads to lower quality instruction (Ganley et al. , 2019) . Quality of instruction and math anxiety will have to be addressed in Manitoba in order to understand and mitigate low understanding of mathematics concepts.  \nProblems Related to Low Student Understanding in Mathematics  \nTwo areas that contribute to lower understanding in mathematics in general are quality of instruction and math anxiety. Students are often asked to memorize rote facts and procedures, and are not exposed to deeper level thinking. Alternatively, they are asked to focus on surface level questions, stalling student learning.  \nThe second factor is that many students, and teachers, experience math anxiety. Math anxiety in students inhibits their ability to learn concepts, and math anxiety in teachers negatively affects instruction (Ganley et al. , 2019) . Quality of instruction and math anxiety in Manitoba classrooms negatively impact student experiences in mathematics classrooms, fostering fixed mindsets and negative mathematical identities (Boaler, 2019) . This leads to low student understanding of concepts.  \nQuality of Instruction  \nIt is nearly impossible for students to gain a deep understanding of concepts when they arepresented with only low-quality rote tasks and questions. Furthermore, when students are not presented with the opportunities to see math as a creative discipline, their thinking around math concepts suffers (Krall, 2018) . Teachers’ understanding of the depth of questions they ask is highly skewed. In a recent study, it was found that teachers highly under-reported surface level (Depth of Knowledge 1) questions, and over-reported deeper level (Depth of Knowledge 4) questions in math classes (Barikmo, 2021) . Instruction that focusses on Depth of Knowledge 1 tasks does not help students to learn concepts deeply, which helps them to compress newfound knowledge, making it easier to retrieve when needed for future problems (Boaler, 2019) . When  \nteachers’ level of questioning is deeper, their quality of instruction will also be deeper, focusing on more than procedures alone.  \nQuality of instruction is negatively affected by rote and procedural questioning and tasks. Students learn that math is about following instructions and rules, which places more emphasis on being fast and smart than on learning a deep understanding of concepts (Boaler & Williams, 2015) . However, students learn best through non-traditional methods that encourage student discourse and collaboration in order to make sense of concepts and procedures, discov","cbCaibuGvWftZ7gq","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaibuGvWftZ7gq","pdf",129856,"English","# Abstract\n# Problems Related to Low Student Understanding in Mathematics\n# Quality of Instruction\n# Math Anxiety","[{\"question\":\"What two main factors contribute to low student understanding in mathematics in Manitoba?\",\"answer\":\"Quality of instruction and math anxiety in both students and teachers are identified as key contributors to low understanding and performance.\"},{\"question\":\"How does quality of instruction affect students’ ability to understand math concepts?\",\"answer\":\"Instruction focused on low-quality rote tasks and surface-level questions limits deep conceptual learning and can reinforce fixed mindsets and negative mathematical identities.\"},{\"question\":\"How can math anxiety in students and teachers be addressed?\",\"answer\":\"The document suggests building academically safe classrooms to reduce students’ anxiety and providing professional development and suitable coursework for teachers to reduce teachers’ math anxiety, thereby improving instruction.\"}]","Addressing Concerns Related to Low Student Understanding in Mathematics in Manitoba | PDF",1792080491,15]