Math Anxiety Research Paper

Conquering math anxiety for girls

Introduction

Millions of girls at schools and universities are terrified of math. They try to avoid math subjects as long as possible and then, they choose majors that require little or no math. Research has shown that high level of anxiety in students causes unacceptable performance in the subject. Invariably, it is believed that math has usually been students' biggest problem in schools. However, a research by University of Missouri, the University of California-Irvine and the University of Glasgow in Scotland concluded that, the level of math anxiety in girls differences boys. It has been demonstrated that, girls have higher level of math anxiety than boys. This paper will examine the study of psychologists

Firstly, this article appears gender biased, considering that this notion is impossible to be true for every girl student. Constantly, girls have also shown desire to those careers that require math, such as science, engineering and technology. Discussing about girls' anxiety from math so generally is a weakness to the overall quality of the article. Another weak point about this article is that the author includes the reason has been not known for the girls' disinterest in math and stem subjects. While, it has been found that stereotype is one of the reasons that makes girls to hinder in math and other stem subjects. According to (Steel,1997)"Stereotype refers to a decrease in test performance in situations where individuals feel threatened by the possibility that their performance will confirm—to others, and/or themselves—a negative stereotype about their group abilities" (psychol,2016). Girls perform similarly to the boys throughout elementary schools or show better performance in the subjects like math, science and computer. However, things change when they step their adulthood. Studies show that girls start to feel less confidence in math abilities than boys since, boys are more encouraged in science and math by their teachers and parents. Girls then, admit the idea that math is and not important for them, and they take fewer math classes that

A study by OECD(Organization for Economic Co-corporation and Development) shows that girls’ performance in math can be boost by their parents encouraging to careers that require math. They mentioned that, girls performance were better in school, they completed more assignments and had positive attitude toward math. OECD also noted that girls in Finland and Shanghai had the highest performing math results than boys. These factors are the matters for girls' anxiety in math and encouraging them in math can be a positive factor to make them interest in math and stem subjects. One other gap in this article is, it is unclearness about gender differences in math anxiety. The author illustrates that the main factor for girls' anxiety is not gender inequality, whereas, people in developing countries will not agree with this at all. For example, our society is a male dominant society where boys are more valued and encouraged than females. As a result of which, girls loss their confident that do not allow them to show up their abilities. Certainly, Gender equality is the main factor that girls cannot perform better than