Running head: RELIEVING MATH ANXIETY AND IMPROVING VOCABULARY

Write Math, Speak Math: Relieving Math Anxiety and Improving Math Vocabulary
Victoria Farrimond
University of Utah

RELIEVING MATH ANXIETY AND IMPROVING VOCABULARY

Write Math, Speak Math: Relieving Math Anxiety and Improving Math Vocabulary
Introduction
When I was a high school math student, being asked to go up to the board was considered
a privilege. However, when I ask my students to go up to the board to work through a problem,
some of them cringe. What I find worse is when they ask me if they have to share their work, as
if it is torture to present to the class. I know that public speaking can be nerve wrecking for most
people. Having the entire class looking at you is unsettling, and being asked to explain math can
be even more uncomfortable.
I want my students to lose their negative feelings about math, and in doing so, help them
get rid of their fear of presenting their work and thoughts to the class. Most of them dislike math
or think they are not good at math. I think this defines their math anxiety and drives their fear of
presenting their ideas and work to the class. I needed them to overcome this attitude in order to
promote a positive atmosphere in the class that accepts and encourages student contributions,
even if they are incorrect.
As a math major in college, I never, ever, presented any of my work in front of my class.
I also never had the opportunity to create or present a presentation for my class. I remember
being envious of friends majoring in sociology and cultural studies who spent most of their
classes having discussions and presenting their PowerPoint presentations. In nearly every field of
study, communicating your ideas through public speaking is a vital skill to have, including in
mathematics. I was bitter that my undergraduate math program did not prepare me for that aspect
of graduate school as many other disciplines did. This feeling of resentment still lingered as I
saw my students timid and hesitant to speak to the class or show their work to the class.

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By encouraging my students to present their work to the class I hoped to improve their
reasoning skills and public speaking skills by ridding them of their fear to share their ideas
publically. I wanted to address the following questions: Why are students hesitant to share their
ideas aloud? Why are they fearful to explain their thought process to the class? Why do they
want to avoid approaching the board and presenting their work? These questions not only
address their feelings toward math, but they uncover another issue of public speaking. My hopes
were to create a safe environment for students to pose ideas about math, use logic to problem
solve and sort through them, and mathematical reasoning to come to a consensus. Thus, it was
critical that my students were willing to share their ideas to the class.
My initial goal was to change my students individual opinions of math and have them
realize the necessity for their ideas and work to be presented to the class. Through this growth in
participation, I desired for the class culture to change into a positive, safe, accepting class. These
goals were related to my classroom and their feelings about math, but I also felt that they would
improve their public speaking skills, their reasoning skills, and their self-confidence through
their participation. The latter is more important in the long run than the initial problem I sought
to address in my classroom.
Although my initial plans dealt with improving my students confidence in presenting
their work at the board, this project transformed into one that addressed the quality of my
students board work, their mathematical justifications and explanations, in addition to their math
vocabulary, all while decreasing their math anxiety. The transformation of my initial plan ended
up finding a permanent place in our classroom and is still playing an important role in my
students growth as they continue their journey of studying math.

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Literature Review and Plan

According to Ashcraft (2002), Math anxiety is commonly defined as a feeling of
tension, apprehension, or fear that interferes with math performance (p.181). I constantly find
my students math anxiety keeping them in a static state that prevents them from growing as
math students. Through trial and error one often progresses in a mathematical situation. Due to
my students apprehension to work with math, they prevented themselves from learning new
math. Ashcraft (2002) stated that highly math-anxious individuals are characterized by a strong
tendency to avoid math, which ultimately undercuts their math competence and forecloses
important career paths (p.181). I obviously do not want my students to lose out on improving
their math competency, but allowing their math anxiety to hinder them from certain career
choices is another huge reason that addressing this problem has benefits outside of my
classroom.
He also found that in comparison to people without math anxiety, highly math-anxious
individuals end up with lower math competence and achievement. They are exposed to less math
in school and apparently learn less of what they are exposed to (Ashcraft, 2002, p. 182). By
attempting to decrease my students math anxiety, I hoped that they would learn more about the
math that I was exposing them to. On the other hand, had I allowed their math anxiety to
continue growing, my students would likely dabble in avoidance strategies where they
withdraw effort, resist novel approaches to learning, and avoid seeking academic help when
they need it (Turner et al., 2002, p.88). These avoidance strategies, often adopted to deflect
attention from low ability, undermine performance and may contribute to the devaluation of
learning and dropping out of school (Turner et al., 2002, p. 88). Although it is a nasty
progression of math anxiety leading to avoidance strategies that potentially play a role in drop

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outs, this is extremely plausible given the situation some of my students are in. By implementing
a plan to change my classroom environment to encourage participation and discourage math
anxiety, I hoped to alleviate the stress my students may be facing with their math class and
needing math credit to graduate.
On multiple occasions I noticed my students exhibiting the abovementioned avoidance
strategies. I am sure that it has to do with years of dealing with math anxiety. This made it
difficult for me to have volunteers approach the board to present their work. Volunteers being out
of the question at times resulted in me having to assign students to go to the board. They hated
this! I believe that it has to do with their fear of making mistakes and not knowing what to do,
stemming from their math anxiety, but also with having to face the class and speak, as many of
them spoke to the board. Thus, in order to help alleviate any fear that my students had of
presenting their work to the class by themselves, I implemented a buddy system to have pairs go
up to the board together to present their work. I hoped that by having a partner to discuss math
with, it would not only help them understand the content and their work better, but their fear of
talking about math might diminish and decrease their math anxiety. I hoped that by having them
talk to someone else they would gain comfort in asking questions and learn how to justify their
work. Proving you are correct is less intimidating to do with a peer than with a teacher.
My initial plan was to assign partners to each of my students to work with for about three
weeks. I would rotate partners every few weeks. The buddy system that I created was heavily
focused on the startups at the beginning of every class. I assigned each problem to a different
pair of students and told them that they would be presenting their work to the class. Whoever
wrote the work on the board had to remain quiet as their partner explained the work to the class.

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This practice of one student writing their work on the board and another student
explaining it carried over for weeks. When explaining a peers work, I initially found my
students usually had a poor math vocabulary and used many pronouns rather than correct
terminology. Throughout implementation of this plan, I allowed students to use whatever words
they desired. By asking clarifying questions and restating their explanations with more accurate
vocabulary, I noticed the students improving their own vocabulary. Goos (2004) gave an example
of a similar result occurring in a classroom where a teacher paraphrased or reinterpreted
students' language to introduce appropriate mathematical terms for the ideas they expressed
(p.282). She stated, ZPD's created by interweaving spontaneous and theoretical concepts
challenge students to integrate their existing language and experiences with the more abstract
concepts and precise terminology of mathematics (p.282). Unintentionally, this became a
natural occurrence in our class.
Methods and Findings
My daily journals were the sole means of data collection for this project. I attempted to
use a survey after each class for my students to fill out, but I found them to be dissatisfying.
Many of my students had attendance issues and were frequently absent. This caused my data
collection from the surveys to be an inaccurate measure of the class as a whole. The couple of
students who had perfect attendance reported survey values that were not representative of the
average student. Yet, their scores became the average due to the low number of students
enrolling. In a class of 11 students, the average score from the survey often misrepresented how
my students felt because there were usually at least four students absent. For example, on
Tuesday, February 17th, I had seven students absent and calculated the average score of comfort
level of presenting to be 4.5 out of 5. Yet, I had two volunteers that day and the mood seemed

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typical of the mood prior to the implementation of this plan. Thus, I do not believe the 4.5 was
representative of the class as a whole, but rather of the four students that do not have a high math
anxiety level in my opinion.
Relying on my journals helped me track the individual progress of my students and the
change in the class atmosphere with greater detail than I could have with the surveys. My daily
journals consisted of any events that stood out as a result of the project, as well as my opinion of
the students willingness to participate, and ultimately, the level of math vocabulary that was
being used. The progression of the plan is seen when comparing the journal entries from
Wednesday, February 11th and Thursday, March 26th.
On the 11th I wrote, The students are still hesitant to approach the board. They are unsure
of what I want from them. I think that they have never approached the board with a partner, so it
feels unnatural to them. I am seeing more correct work, but still not seeing an increase in
participation. I am only seeing a change in discussion during the startups and the accuracy of the
work presented on the board. I am happy to hear less, I dont know. My aim for the project
was still dealing with decreasing math anxiety in terms of presenting at the board. Whereas by
the end of March, I have accepted the natural transformation of my plan to entail a change from
static partners to anyone explaining another students work. On the 26th my journal entry reads,
In addition to the increase in volunteers for writing their work on the board, I am noticing them
volunteer to explain the board work. Instead of randomly calling on students to explain to the
class the work thats on the board, they are in this new routine and are voluntarily vocalizing the
steps on the board. On the same day I also wrote, I am happy to see them using better
vocabulary to avoid me rephrasing their responses and asking the same questions over and over
again. Mark kept using the word bottom to refer to the denominator, and I would wait until he

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finished his sentence to then rephrase it by saying, she multiplied by the denominator. By the
end of the day, he was saying multiplied versus timesed and denominator rather than
bottom. I also was able to stop asking him, Plugged what in? He started saying, I plugged in
the value of x. Now, if I can only get him to use the word substitution instead of plugging in.
The end of this journal entry helped me notice that through this plan of having students explain
the board work, and my rephrasing and asking questions, their math vocabulary improved as a
bonus. These changes seemed to decrease their math anxiety as they volunteered more often, and
recognized their improvement of vocabulary use.
Discussion
Although my initial intentions for this project seemed to get lost throughout the actual
implementation of my plan, I found the end results to be extremely rewarding. I am fascinated
with how the plan transformed over the months, and without the constant obstacles and
readjustments, it would not have evolved so fluidly. In an attempt to answer questions
concerning my students fear of public speaking and participation in a math class, I wound up
improving their math vocabulary and justification skills. To address my initial research questions
regarding my students hesitation to share their ideas aloud, fear of explaining their thought
process to the class, and avoidance of approaching the board and presenting their work, I believe
the explanation lies in two areas that my projected ultimately addressed: math anxiety and
classroom environment.
I feel that through the change in course of my initial plan, this project continually helped
my students decrease their math anxiety through its entire implementation. Through the
transformation of the project, I found my classroom environment changed for the better. My

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students were more willing to participate and this allowed for better discussions and more
challenging content. It also created a safe space for us to critique each others work, which is a
necessary part of mathematical reasoning. A strength of this project that I did not anticipate was
the way it allowed me to assist my students with using more precise language and math
vocabulary.
Obstacles
Due to many class absences of my students, and not repeatedly giving explicit
instructions about the partners carrying over from class to class, the buddy system plan did not
continue for more than a couple of weeks. However, stages of the plan continued and still
continue to resonate in the class routine. Students volunteer, or sometimes get called, to present
their work to the class. Then, another student is chosen to explain the work on the board. This
adjustment to the initial plan was beneficial in many ways. First, students who were writing their
work on the board started to care about how they presented their work because someone else had
to translate it. I frequently noted in my journal entries that students were more conscious of how
their work turned out on the board. On March 13th I wrote, I think Chris is getting tired of
having to answer the question of, What does this say? His writing is much more legible today,
and he erased and re-wrote a couple of his steps until they were easier to read. This was another
benefit that was manifesting in the class due to the project.
Initially, I made the mistake of assigning partners to the problem they were responsible
for presenting their work to while they were working on their startups. This created a problem as
students solely focused on the problem that they were assigned to. I found that students who
were not assigned a problem would not do any of the startup problems, or the students who were

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assigned a problem only did that problem. This frustrated me and led me to stop informing my
students which problem they were responsible for.
A big change in the way the plan was carried out happened after my mentor teacher
pointed out that the starter was taking 45 minutes. Through the process of having students write
their work on the board and then waiting for all of them to sit down, to then have other students
explain the work, a lot of time was used. I grudgingly decreased the startups, which
unfortunately decreased the amount of time devoted to my students presenting and explaining
work. This led me to incorporate the student board work and explanations throughout the class
instead of solely focusing it during the beginning of class with the startups.
This plan definitely had students discussing math and comparing answers, and at times
defending their reasoning. It was great! However, sometimes the discussions drifted away from
math and increased volume. This created a problem for me to address as I did not want them to
think that they could not have discussions. Although my plan was initially focused on board
work and presentation, I was thrilled to hear the discussions that were taking place during the
startups. Before introducing this plan to the class, the students were allowed to discuss the
startups. However, I noticed an improvement in their discussions in terms of depth and math
content after implementation of my plan.
Recommendations
The first obstacle I encountered could have easily been avoided by not telling my
students who was responsible for which problems. I also recommend using problems that take
less time to complete. The startups tend to take a long time because of the questions that I asked.

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By planning on asking more specific questions, the time issue could be alleviated. For example,
asking for the next step in solving a problem versus asking them to solve it.
Similar to the classroom environment described in Goos study (2004) that was credited
to the teachers interactions with the students, I recommend allowing students to finish their
sentences using their own word choice. By interrupting and correcting them, students tend to
shut down, and their math anxiety likely increases. I recommend accepting their lack of specific
vocabulary, but paraphrasing their explanation with the correct terminology. I also recommend
asking questions that lead students to be more specific about what they are talking about. By
constantly asking questions that lead students to identify the pronouns they all too often use, the
students pick up on what they need to specify. For example, constantly asking my student what
he plugged in led him to identify that he meant he plugged in the x value rather than plugging it
in.
Additionally, a large part of the success of this project came from implementing it
throughout the entire class rather than only during the startup. Allowing my students the
opportunity to write their work on the board in the middle of a lecture on new material changed
the vibe of the class. I found them having confidence to try out problems that used math they had
never learned before. I also found the class excited to explain the work on the board, whether it
was a students work or mine. This breakthrough would not have happened had I solely allowed
it to take place during the startups.
Conclusion
My students math anxiety and fear of public speaking are my biggest obstacles in
creating a classroom environment free of shame and accepting of attempts, mistakes, and

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amends. Initially, I sought out to address the hesitance of approaching the board and sharing
ideas and work to the class that the majority of my students displayed. Although my initial plan
did not carry out as anticipated, through this action research project, my plan transformed into a
permanent part of my class. I did not expect this project to have such a positive impact on my
classroom and my students. The best part about it is that my students are aware of the
improvements it brought about. They remember being timid to volunteer or dreadful of being
called on. Fast forward to a few months later, and they find themselves sometimes fighting to
present their work to the class. Additionally, justifying a students work is now a natural part of
the class. They also are mindful of the math terminology that they use and at times, they look to
me to provide them with a more precise term so they can continue using it to better explain the
work.
Through the change in our classroom atmosphere, I see my students math anxiety and
fear of public speaking diminishing. I am proud that they feel the improvements that they have
made over the past few months. I believe that my attitude towards allowing them to present their
work free of criticism played an important role in creating a safe space for them to seek the
growth and improvement that I desired without forcing them to do so. This project made a huge
difference in this classroom and will become a part of my teaching in the years to come.

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References
Ashcraft, M. H. (2002). Math Anxiety: Personal, Educational, and Cognitive Consequences.
Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11(5), 181-185.
Goos, M. (2004). Learning Mathematics in a Classroom Community of Inquiry. Journal for
Research in Mathematics Education, 35(4), 258-291.
Turner, J. C., Midgley, C., Meyer, D. K., Gheen, M., Anderman, E. M., Kang, Y., & Patrick, H.
(2002). The Classroom Environment and Students Reports of Avoidance Strategies in
Mathematics: A Multimethod Study. Journal of Educational Psychology, 94(1), 88106.