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No need to be anxious about math anxiety
Math anxiety is a growth industry in the research world, as this article attests. Of course, we agree with the article that math anxiety is a bad thing and that it interferes with people’s ability to learn math - but the researchers’ suggestions for reducing math anxiety (for example, small tweaks to how math problems are presented) are ridiculous.
John Mighton, in his wonderful book The Myth of Ability: Nurturing mathematical talent in every child (available for borrowing from our library), conclusively proves that the solution to math anxiety is to teach kids properly (like this). Dr. Mighton shows how all kids can become good at math and then amazingly - surprise! - explains that kids who are good at math aren’t anxious about it. He then suggests that schools use his proven approach for teaching kids math.
Can anyone find a problem with Dr. Mighton’s line of reasoning?