[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-591471-105":59,"doc-detail-591471-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","ask-the-cognitive-scientist-math-anxiety-can-teachers-help-students-reduce-it","ASK THE COGNITIVE SCIENTIST - Math Anxiety: Can Teachers Help Students Reduce It?","","A professional Q&A column examines math anxiety through cognitive science and explains why students become nervous and fearful about learning math. It traces how anxiety can emerge as early as elementary school, driven by both perceived skill gaps and social cues that signal math should be feared. The column summarizes research linking higher math anxiety to lower performance across school and real-world tasks, then introduces evidence-informed classroom techniques teachers can use to reduce anxiety and improve learning.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":35,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/healthcare/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/ask-the-cognitive-scientist-math-anxiety-can-teachers-help-students-reduce-it/591471/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/ask-the-cognitive-scientist-math-anxiety-can-teachers-help-students-reduce-it/591471.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"supergirl","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-29","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":81},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"When does math anxiety typically begin for students?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"Math anxiety can begin as early as elementary school, before many students have stable learning routines.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"What factors can prompt students to develop math anxiety?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"It can be triggered by genuine concerns that their math skills need work and by social cues that subtly communicate that math should be feared.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"How does math anxiety relate to academic and real-world outcomes?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"Higher levels of math anxiety are associated with poorer math performance, and the negative relationship extends beyond school into tasks such as calculations involved in areas like nursing drug dosages and financial planning.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},591471,1792669141,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":34,"category_name":35,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":81,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":29,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144,"preview_page_count":4},962088121634,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_9964176cb1d06d4a9deccf72a44ae3dc","ASK THE COGNITIVE SCIENTIST  \nMath Anxiety: Can Teachers  \nHelp Students Reduce It?  \nILLUSTRAT IONS BY JAMES YANG  \nHow does the mind work—and especially how does it learn? Teachers’ instructional decisions are based on a mix of theories learned in teacher education, trial and error, craft knowledge, and gut instinct. Such knowledge often serves us well, but is there anything sturdier to rely on?  \nCognitive science is an interdisciplinary􀀞eld of researchers from psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, philosophy, computer science,  \nSianL. Beilockis a professor of psychology anda member of the Committee on Education atthe University of Chicago. Her recent book, Choke: What the Secretsofthe Brain Reveal About Getting It Right When You Have To, discusses intelligence, performance, and how to succeed in high-pressure situations. Daniel T. Willingham is a professor of cognitive psychology atthe University of Virginia. His most recent book, When Can You Trust the Experts? How to Tell Good Science from Bad in Education, provides ashortcutfor evaluating claims about programs and strategies. His previous book, Why Don’t Students Like School?, helps teachers apply research on the mind to the classroom setting. For his articles on education, go to www. [danielwillingham.com. Readers can pose questions](danielwillingham.com. Readers can pose questions) to “Ask the Cognitive Scientist” by sending an email [to ae@aft.org. Future columns will](to ae@aft.org. Future columns will) try to address readers’ questions.  \nand anthropology who seek to understand the mind. In this regular American Educator column, we consider 􀀞ndings from this 􀀞eld that are strong and clear enough to merit classroom application.  \nBy Sian L. Beilock and Daniel T. Willingham  \nQuestion: Some of my students seem to get really nervous about math. I can understand not liking the subject very much—to be honest, I don’tlove it myself—but their nervousness seems to get in the way of their understanding. How can I reassure them or otherwise make them less anxious?  \nAnswer: 􀀝ere is no doubt that math makes some students very anxious. 􀀝is problem can begin as early as elementary school, and might be prompted both by genuine concerns—the student perceives that his or her math skills need work—and by social cues that subtly convey the message that math should be feared. Research on how to best help students through this problem is ongoing, but there are a few techniques that teachers may 􀀞nd useful.  \n28 AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SUMMER 2014  \nT  \no many people,“math” is a scary four-letter word. 􀀝ey don’t like it, they don’t feel like they are very good at it, and they just want to stay away from it. People who feel tension, apprehension, and fear of situations involving  \nmath are said to have math anxiety. And, perhaps not surprisingly, math anxiety is associated with poor math performance in school. Students with a high degree of math anxiety perform worse in math from elementary school through college, relative to their less math-anxious counterparts.1 But, it’s not just school situations where a negative relationship between math anxiety and mathematical performance emerges. Higher levels of math anxiety are associated with poor calculations of drug dosages by nurses and impaired 􀀞nancial planning.2  \nMath anxiety is not limited to a minority of individuals nor to  \nIn one recent study, math anxiety was assessed in 154 􀀞rst-and second-graders with a newly developed scale that asked them questions like,“How do you feel when taking a big test in your math class?” or “How do you feel when getting your math book and seeing all the numbers init?”6 Kids responded byusing a sliding scale that featured a calm face on the far right, a moderately nervous face in the middle, and an obviously nervous face on the far left (see 􀀞gure below) .  \none country. International comparisons of high school students SOURCE: GERARDO RAMIREZ, ELIZABETH A. GUNDERSON, SUSAN C. LEVINE, AND SIAN L. BEILOC","cbCaiuSoUveNWw6i","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiuSoUveNWw6i","pdf",213644,"English","# Question\n## Answer\n# Background on Math Anxiety\n## Links to Performance\n# Evidence Example: Early Grades","[{\"question\":\"When does math anxiety typically begin for students?\",\"answer\":\"Math anxiety can begin as early as elementary school, before many students have stable learning routines.\"},{\"question\":\"What factors can prompt students to develop math anxiety?\",\"answer\":\"It can be triggered by genuine concerns that their math skills need work and by social cues that subtly communicate that math should be feared.\"},{\"question\":\"How does math anxiety relate to academic and real-world outcomes?\",\"answer\":\"Higher levels of math anxiety are associated with poorer math performance, and the negative relationship extends beyond school into tasks such as calculations involved in areas like nursing drug dosages and financial planning.\"}]","ASK THE COGNITIVE SCIENTIST - Math Anxiety: Can Teachers Help Students Reduce It? | PDF",1792072527,15]