What do you call it when you are seriously annoyed by almost everything in an article but then agree with the conclusion? Proof by contracontradiction, maybe? Anyway, that was the feeling on reading the latest piece by SMH‘s education reporter, Christopher Harris:
‘Difficult, cold and abstract’: Why girls feel helpless in this school subject
Yes, the subject is mathematics, of course. And so we have yet another article on girls and maths? And, really, the girls feel “helpless”? Not really, and of course not.
Harris’s report is ping pong craziness, from his opening one-sentence paragraph:
About 40 per cent of Australian teenagers do not feel confident calculating the cost of a computer with added tax after a decade of worsening “mathematics anxiety” that educators say has been exacerbated by faddish teaching methods shunning the importance of basics such as times tables.
So, we begin with some numeracy crap, end with a slap at “faddish teaching methods shunning the importance of basics”, and with the two tied together in the middle with “mathematics anxiety”. And not a sign of the girls. Where does one begin to unravel this?
It begins with PISA, the idiotic OECD test for 15 year olds, administered and hawked by international snake oilman, Andreas Schleicher. As well as asking kids all over the world very bad mathematics questions, the PISA testers ask the kids (and their teachers and schools) all manner of surveyish questions, with the reasonable goal of trying to figure out why kids do well or poorly. PISA was last held in 2022, and Volume V of the PISA “results” was just released, subtitled,
Learning strategies and Attitudes for Life
So, this volume is all about the feels. Harris’s report appears to be based on this volume or, more likely, on satellite documents. (It is unclear, and Harris provides no titles or links, because of course no one but a weirdo would actually want to determine what the hell Harris is actually talking about.)
A new international report says 15-year-old Australian students are more likely to feel helpless, nervous and “very tense” when they attempt numerical calculations compared to 2012.
Yes, it’s like a war zone in them there classrooms. And then Harris gets to the girls:
Australian girls were more likely to express anxious feelings about solving mathematical problems when compared to boys, even if they were top performers in the subject.
Stereotyped attitudes towards mathematics may be behind the gender difference observed around the world, the report from the OECD said, with boys more likely to report having a growth mindset in the subject than girls by an average of 7 percentage points.
No report on maths feels would be complete, of course, without reference to “growth mindset”. You gotta mix in a little Boaler-Dweck twaddle.
Anyway, the kids are more than helpless and nervous and tense than they were a decade ago? Why might that be?
Mathematics anxiety, the name given to the feeling of being overwhelmed and confused when faced with a numerical problem, has been rising in almost every country over the past decade.
“Students who are more confident and students who are less anxious ask more questions when they do not understand something being taught,” the report said.
It was only a matter of time before we got to “mathematics anxiety”. Harris links to his own, silly article, which we hammered. The underlying problem being, mathematics anxiety is not a thing. (And see here for commenters proving us wrong.)
Anyway, what do we do about mathematics anxiety? Luckily, Harris offers us “mathematics researcher Dr Greg Ashman” to provide the solution:
[Ashman] said English-speaking countries had focused on teaching “problem-solving skills” and eschewed remembering procedures such as long division or memorising times tables – which he said was “fundamentally wrong”.
“Evidence suggests that teachers in East Asia want their students to understand maths just like we do. However, they also appreciate the fundamental importance of practising facts and procedures to fluency. Without this fluency, there is no strong foundation. Students are presented with problems they struggle to solve and this is what plausibly drives maths anxiety.
“When it comes to the gender gap, there are other factors at work, many of which are complex. However, if we taught maths better – if we taught it clearly and explicitly and asked students to practise to fluency – we may reduce the aversion to maths felt by some girls because they would experience more success as a result of this better teaching.”
So, finally, following paragraph after paragraph of stress and nonsense, lovingly illustrated with gorgeous PISA graphs, Greg Ashman, mathematics researcher, steers us to Sanity Island. In brief, teach some solid maths and let the feels take care of themselves.
Once again, Greg Ashman, Maths Researcher, rides to the rescue. What an incredibly screwy world is Australian maths ed.
Is Greg Ashman the only sane maths ed researcher in Australia?
We can add Marty Ross and Burkard Polster to that list (amongst many others).
Some great academics I can remember from my time at Monash – Leo Brewin, Paul Cally, Michael Page, the list goes on.
Nope. None of them/us are maths ed researchers.
Thanks, Cathy. I’m not sure Greg is a maths ed researcher (and he definitely ain’t a maths researcher). But, yes, I think the number of sane maths ed researchers in Australia is either 0 or 1, depending how you count Greg.
I can confirm I am neither a maths researcher nor a maths ed researcher, although the latter is closer to the truth. The research I have done on cognitive load theory has lots of implications for mathematics and my own research involved teaching students how to calculate the efficiency of light globes i.e. physics but maths related.
The confusion is, however, my fault. Lucy Carroll proposed describing me this way a couple of weeks back when I offered her some quotes and I was so busy checking the quotes, I didn’t notice. Now, this particular greyhound is out the traps with The Age and The SMH. Christopher Harris never asked how I wanted to be described but I should have thought of this when he asked for some quotes.
I have already drafted my weekly Curios post that comes out tomorrow and I link to your doubts on maths anxiety. I am not totally convinced maths anxiety is a thing. I am convinced that kids can get anxious about maths and I used to think the two things were close enough that it didn’t matter. I now think the distinction does matter, but I’m not sure where I stand on it all.
But how can Maths Anxiety (TM) not be a thing, Greg? It has a name, for goodness sake!
Man, I am so glad it’s Friday so I can get on the sauce relatively guilt-free.
I have always thought of maths anxiety as the student who has lost all hope after having too many inadequate teachers. Which in my experience is a thing.
I think that would be maths learned helplessness.
As to why I don’t think maths anxiety is a thing, you can read what I wrote at the provided links.
Yeah you are right. I meant prior to reading this post. Perhaps I meant to say thanks for sharing and the insight…
Thanks, Greg. I was just having fun with you here. The mis-titling didn’t matter for this report, and what mattered were you words of plain common sense after the swamp of nonsense that preceded it.
But, yes, the “maths expert” thing is very bad, and really annoying, at other times. During the fight over ACARA’s idiotic curriculum, the misuse of the term drove me nuts.
Maths anxiety is not a thing.
Calling mathematics difficult, cold and abstract and girls helpless and complaining about stereotypes at the same time is a bit rich. Oh, and the times tables. I wish I’d get an answer within 10 seconds when I ask 9th graders what 3.2 times 10 is.
Thanks, Franz. I had planned a much longer swatting of Harris’s article. But it’s been a very tiring week, and there’s a gin and tonic with my name on it.
I think that Maths anxiety is a full load of craps which is created for excusing the poor state of Maths’ teaching and learning in Australia. Students can have anxiety on any thing or any subject. So many students dislike the performance subjects like dance and drama as they feel awkward showing their body movement in front of their classmates. And why no one claims about “drama anxiety” or “dance anxiety”. “Lack of confidence, yes; anxiety – no.” If the students are confused and don’t know what to do and don’t dare to ask for help, it’s a teacher’s problem, not a Maths as a subject problem. I am a female senior VCE Maths teacher in a department full of guys who can talk hours about this initiative, that fancy strategies …but never bother to actually do anything to help. I have seen it all (in my own school, of course). When some finish teaching year 12, they simply sent an email to students telling them “Email me if you need help” and then wondered why no student bothered. Because students they can sense from a mile if a teacher is genially care about them. I heard a male teacher belittle a female student in a Method class because she needs a clear guidance on how to prepare for the end of year exam. I saw a teacher presenting a year 12 Maths methods lesson by simple run through a Google slide show. Maths is not a problem but the teachers teaching it, the system that producing some poor-quality teachers are the problems. And in stead of investing in initiatives to encourage for female students and teachers staying in Maths, they dumb down Maths’ requirements for the other subject like Physics and Chemistry with the hope that more females students will join them. It was not an amazing success at our school as we down to 1 female in a Physics and a small handful in Chemistry foe next year.
Thanks, Victoria.
The International Classification of Diseases (ICD) published by WHO has a definition of Generalised anxiety disorder (CB00). It seems to me that “Mathematics anxiety” does not fit this definition. However, specific phobia is defined as follows.
“Specific phobia is characterised by a marked and excessive fear or anxiety that consistently occurs upon exposure or anticipation of exposure to one or more specific objects or situations (e.g., proximity to certain animals, flying, heights, closed spaces, sight of blood or injury) that is out of proportion to actual danger. The phobic objects or situations are avoided or else endured with intense fear or anxiety. Symptoms persist for at least several months and are sufficiently severe to result in significant distress or significant impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational, or other important areas of functioning” (ICD CB03).
“Lifetime prevalence of Specific Phobia is approximately twice as high in females” (ICD CB03).
Thanks, Terry. None of it is relevant.
For the hundredth time, “Maths anxiety”, as it is almost invariably used, is simply a boogie man term for Bad Maths Vibes. The discussion is inevitably muddy nothingness, which distracts from the substantive and important issues, of what constitutes decent mathematics teaching and how rare it has become.
Do not pathologize normal human emotions.
Often, words are misused, but this does not deprive them of meaning.
Oh, for Christ’s sake. Terry, I can’t be bothered with your nonsense today.
I always enjoy reading Marty-Terry interactions.
I don’t.
Yep, no such thing as maths anxiety.
Maths frustration is very real, however, because year ten onwards mathematics is the single most abstract and difficult thing in the world.
Harry, we’ve already played this movie, and you were very patiently answered last time. Why go back to square one and repeat it?