What can be done to improve attitudes to maths in primary classrooms?

What can be done to improve attitudes to maths in primary classrooms?
Maths has always been the subject where at least one person grumbles or sighs at the mention of its name. This is usually due to the pupils struggling with maths or from being influenced by a role models (usually parents or teachers) view towards the subject. But could this influence be the real reason as to why attitudes towards maths and numeracy are low and disliked. We will be looking at sources and comparing these to come to a conclusion about this. Parents can sometimes be gender biased towards their children’s ability in maths and we will be looking at what this is and how this can affect children also.
These negative attitudes towards maths can play a critical role in math performance, math course-taking, and the pursuit of math- related career paths. As well as influencing children towards certain mind frames and idea, role models also have set expectations, sometimes being gender biased and that can affect children’s math attitudes and performance (Gunderson, 2012). Parents may unconsciously gender stereotype the children with their ability in maths. Parents of boys tend to believe that their child has higher math ability and expect their child to achieve more in math than parents of girls. These gender stereotypes, beliefs, and expectations regarding children’s math aptitude affect children’s subsequent math attitudes and achievement in a way that perpetuates gender- stereotypical roles (Gunderson, 2012).
Children’s math anxiety seems to be a critical variable affecting their performance and mathematics achievement. A student’s confidence to learn and perform in math can be affected by negative feelings associated with math anxiety. Through this negative motions can occur and then might always relate back to the potential ‘cause – maths (Soni, 2017). Maths anxiety isn’t just a dislike for learning maths, but a feeling of tension, apprehension, or fear that interferes with Maths performance (Kirkland, 2016).“The genesis of maths anxiety is thought to lie in negative learning experiences early in education Primary school teachers exhibit some of the highest levels of maths anxiety often lacking confidence in their own subject knowledge. They can have negative beliefs about maths as a consequence of their own negative experiences with maths at school. As a result, they tend to stick to set rules and methods”(Marshall et. Al. 2016, p.66). 

 Parental support and encouragement in learning mathematics is positively related to mathematics achievement (Cruz, 2012). According to Fan & Chen (2001), parental involvement has a direct impact on student’s academic achievement. My own personal experience with maths started out with a common negative attitude towards it and perhaps even a slight hing of ‘maths anxietty’. However after several months and/or possible academic years, my parents tried to help me as best as they could to work through my struggles and understand that maths is only a combination of numbers which can be moved and manipulated to how I wanted. After seeing how easy my Father had made it seem I attempted the questions and was able to complete the work. Through doing this, it built my self confidence of my own work ability up and prepared me for a new life of loving maths. Parental belief in children’s competence in mathematics is positively related to children’s high math performance and having a positive attitude from the start will give a significant influence to children’s achievement and behaviour and this is shown through my own experiences (Aunola, et. al. 2003) (Eccles, 1983).
So we’ve seen some evidence in support of how role models can influence and help a pupil if they are struggling with maths and I believe this is the way forward instead of just leaving pupil’s scared of maths for life. Teachers may need to be made aware of ‘maths anxiety’ if they have never heard about it before, but this should be done sooner rather than later in order to help a larger amount of children through this (Kirkland, 2016). In the new Welsh curriculum, maths has been made one of the three key responsibilities to replace the old style ‘core subjects’. This will be given in a cross curriculum format as Donaldson (2015) believes that education is holistic and should therefore all be interconnected whilst learning. There is currently a Literacy and Numeracy Framework (LNF) in place and the children are tested annually on this (Welsh Government, 2018). So teachers and Government are aware of how important maths is as otherwise they would not keep such a high standing on maths in education.
Overall, it is key that children are influenced positively by parents and teachers as otherwise they may carry round an idea or connotation that maths is scary and not fun whereas actually it can give quite a lot of enjoyment and pride when completing questions correctly.
“Being numerate is important, but it shouldn’t come at the cost of kids developing a genuine interest in the wider mathematical picture. Likewise, arithmetical skill should not come at the expense of highly developed problem-solving skills. Getting the right answer can be important, but we can learn an incredible amount through getting things wrong.” (Tiley-Nunn, 2014, P.6).


References:
Aunola, K., Nurmi, J. E., Lerkkanen, M. K., & Puttonen, H. (2003). The roles of achievement related behaviours and parental beliefs in children’s mathematical performance. Educational Psychology, 23(4), 403–421.
Cruz, Y. D. L. (2012). Learning math with my father: A memoir. Journal of Unschooling and Alternative Learning, 6(11), 20–33.
Donaldson, G. (2015) Successful Futures: Independent review of curriculum and assessment arrangements in Wales. Caerdydd: Llywodraeth Cenedlaethol Cymru.
Eccles, J. (1983). Expectancies, values, and academic behaviors. In J. T. Spence (Ed.), Achievement and achievement motives. Psychological and sociological approaches. San Francisco, CA: Freeman & Co.
Fan, X. & Chen, M. (2001). Parental involvement and students’ academic achievement: A meta-analysis. Educational Psychology Review, 13(1), 1–22.
Gunderson, E. Ramirez, G. Levine, S. Beilock, S. (2012) The Role of Parents and Teachers in the Development of Gender-Related Math Attitudes. pp.153–166.
Kirkland, H. (2016) 'Maths Anxiety': Isn’t it just a dislike for learning mathematics? Available online at: https://learn.cardiffmet.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/937132/mod_resource/content/1/Maths%20Anxiety-%20Isn’t%20it%20just%20a%20dislike%20for%20learning%20mathematics%3F.pdf(Accessed on 6thMay 2019).
Marshall, E. M., Wilson, D. A., & Mann, V. E. (2016). Attitudes and anxiousness about maths. In Brave New World: Proceedings of the CETL MSOR Conference (pp. 66-74). Chicago.

Soni, A.& Kumari, S. (2017) The Role of Parental Math Anxiety and Math Attitude in Their Children's Math Achievement. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 15(2), pp.331–347.

Tiley-Nunn, N. and Beadle, P. (2014) Primary Maths: Anyone can feed skittles to sharks. London: Independent Thinking Press. 
Welsh Government, (2018) Statutory assessment arrangements for the Foundation Phase and end of Key Stages 2 and 3, Available online at: https://learning.gov.wales/docs/learningwales/publications/181025-statutory- assessment-arrangements-en.pdf (Accessed on 6thMay 2019).


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