Overcoming Math Anxiety, Succeed with Math, Sheila Tobias, Lecturer, Author

<body> <h2><a href="home.html">Math Anxiety</a></h2> <h2> <a href="mathanxietynet-etailers.html">etailers</a><br> <a href="mathanxietynet-medical.html">medical professionals</a><br> <a href="mathanxietynet-realtors.html">realtors</a><br> <a href="mathanxietynet-recruiters.html">recruiters</a><br> <a href="mathanxietynet-retailers.html">retailers</a><br> <a href="mathanxietynet-service.html">service companies</a><br> <a href="mathanxietynet-wholesalers.html">wholesalers</a> </h2> <h3><a href="links/Math_Anxiety.html">Math Anxiety</a></h3> Mathematics is not <i>fuzzy</i>, mathematicians insist. But it is often taught <i>fuzzily</i>. Students who experience such difficulties feel they are just dumber than everyone else, but in fact they may be smarter. A mind that is bothered by ambiguity - actual or perceived - is not usually a weak mind, but a strong one. This point is important because mathematicians argue that it is the learner - not the subject (or its teaching) - who is imprecise. <h3><a href="links/book_on_math_anxiety.html">book on math anxiety</a></h3> Sheila Tobias has interviewed hundreds of people who have math anxiety. They can all remember the moment when they began to doubt that they had what it takes to learn math. In some cases, it was because someone had told them <i>girls don't do math</i> or <i>blacks don't become engineers.</i> Others came to the conclusion that they would either be good with numbers or with words but that they could not be good with both. Because our American culture is ambivalent about mathematicians' role models, some students decided they did not want to enter the field. Besides, math seemed dreary, never fun. <h3><a href="links/breaking_the_science_barrier.html">breaking the science barrier</a></h3> BREAKING THE SCIENCE BARRIER: How to Explore and Understand the Sciences can help you discover the pleasure, power, and usefulness of science. It can also help overcome barriers that keep you from learning and applying science effectively. Successful people in fields as diverse as law, architecture, book design, fashion, and hotel management rely on a basic understanding of science to do their jobs more skillfully and efficiently. <h3><a href="links/math_anxiety_clinics.html">math anxiety clinics</a></h3> Looking for math anxiety clinics and programs? Susan Auslander worked with Sheila Tobias on the original Math Anxiety Clinic at Wesleyan University. She has developed Overcoming Math Anxiety, a private tutoring and consulting business for people of all ages who suffer from lack of competence and/or confidence in mathematics. They offer one-on-one and group-help to people who need to improve their mathematics skills. They are located in the New York City area. <h3><a href="links/math_course.html">math course</a></h3> Looking for a math course? Sheila Tobias first wrote Overcoming Math Anxiety in 1978. In her updated version, she expands her analysis of the attitude and approach variables that interfere with students' performance. Tobias found three significant variables in her subjects' inability to do college-level mathematics: fear of mathematics, the conviction that mathematics is a white male domain, and the conviction that one is either good in mathematics or in language arts but never both. In her books and lectures, Sheila Tobias shows how to master mathematics without anxiety. <h3><a href="links/good_grades_in_math.html">good grades in math</a></h3> Do you have blocks to achieving good grades in math? Looking for a math course? Sheila Tobias first wrote Overcoming Math Anxiety in 1978. In her updated version, she expands her analysis of the attitude and approach variables that interfere with students' performance. Tobias found three significant variables in her subjects' inability to do college-level mathematics: fear of mathematics, the conviction that mathematics is a white male domain, and the conviction that one is either good in mathematics or in language arts but never both. In her books and lectures, Sheila Tobias shows how to master mathematics without anxiety. <h3><a href="links/math_for_adults.html">math for adults</a></h3> Are you looking for information about math for adults? As reported in Overcoming Math Anxiety (1978, 1993, 2nd edition) in 600 interviews with college-age and older returning students, Sheila Tobias found three significant variables in her subjects' inability to do college-level mathematics: fear of mathematics, the conviction that mathematics is a white male domain, and the conviction that one is either good in mathematics or in language arts but never both. The students' lack of coping skills in dealing with mathematics classes and with their own anxieties appeared to be the main barrier to their attempting mathematics one more time. Subsequently, Tobias focused her research on entering college students. Her second book, Succeed With Math: Every Student's Guide to Conquering Math Anxiety (1987) was commissioned by the College Board. What follows is a selection of excerpts from that book. <h3><a href="links/women_and_mathematics.html">women and mathematics</a></h3> Women and Mathematics: Perceptions and Reality. The myth of a <i>male math gene</i> persists, and career data show women still avoiding math and the math-based fields in disproportion to men. Of the 4.6 million US citizens employed in science and engineering, 30 percent are women, but the vast majority are in the life sciences and psychology, the less mathematical of these careers. Only 4 percent are employed in engineering, the same percent in physics - the most mathematical of the sciences. <h3><a href="links/fear_of_mathematics.html"></a></h3> Do you have a fear of mathematics? I have interviewed hundreds of people who have a fear of mathematics. They can all remember the moment when they began to doubt that they had what it takes to learn math. In some cases, it was because someone had told them <i>girls don't do math</i> or <i>blacks don't become engineers.</i> Others came to the conclusion that they would either be good with numbers or with words but that they could not be good with both. Because our American culture is ambivalent about mathematicians' role models, some students decided they did not want to enter the field. Besides, math seemed dreary, never fun. <h3><a href="links/math_phobia.html">math phobia</a></h3> Do you suffer from math phobia? Does it stop you from achieving your goals? The first thing people remember about failing at math is that it felt like sudden death. Whether it happened while learning word problems in sixth grade, coping with equations in high school, or first confronting calculus and statistics in college, failure was instant and frightening. <h3><a href="links/mathematics_teaching.html">mathematics teaching</a></h3> Mathematics and teaching in the 90's is challenging. We are constantly being told about how poorly Americans are doing in science and mathematics. Mathematics is no longer just an entry-level prerequisite for engineering, the physical sciences, and statistics. Its principles and techniques, along with computers, have become part of almost all areas of work, and its logic is used in thinking about almost everything. Today, many occupations that do not require college-level calculus or statistical skills at the outset do demand them later on for anyone aiming toward promotion into management or work in more interesting technical areas. <h3><a href="links/mathematics_learning.html">mathematics learning</a></h3> Many highly intelligent people avoid mathematics, and are ill-served by that avoidance... Sheila Tobias' book is addressed to people, especially but not solely women, who have been damaged by... [the] presentation of mathematics, and consequently think they are dumb. Mastery of high-school algebra alone will make the difference between a low score and a high score on most standardized entry-level tests for civil service, federal service, industry, and the armed services. And a higher score, even when jobs are scarce, means a higher entry job and the chance to be ear-marked for on-the-job training. Estimates that starting salaries go up $2000 per year for every mathematics course taken after the ninth grade. <h3><a href="links/science_teaching.html">science teaching</a></h3> Science teaching can be challenging. We are constantly being told about how poorly Americans are doing in science and mathematics. Understanding science involves more than merely learning its vocabulary or knowing certain facts. Especially in the physical sciences, scientific concepts begin to make sense only when students apply them. <h3><a href="links/science_learning.html">science learning</a></h3> Looking to improve science learning? A noted science writer and physicist have teamed up to help high school and college students explore the fundamentals of understanding science and the kinds of study and thinking required. BREAKING THE SCIENCE BARRIER: How to Explore and Understand the Sciences can help you discover the pleasure, power, and usefulness of science. It can also help overcome barriers that keep you from learning and applying science effectively. Successful people in fields as diverse as law, architecture, book design, fashion, and hotel management rely on a basic understanding of science to do their jobs more skillfully and efficiently. <h3><a href="links/success_with_math.html">success with math</a></h3> What states of mind help us have success with math? People who are comfortable with mathematics perceive the world in ways that are not available to people who are not. They see connections between quantities the way students of history perceive connections between events. They grasp the essentials of a problem and can abstract these by means of notation so as to be able to predict--without going through a large number of calculations--what will happen if any of those essentials were to change. They have a sense of what is <i>absolute</i> and what is <i>relative</i> in a particular context. They understand that to say an object is <i>moving slowly</i> has little meaning, except in relation to something else. And they are unlikely to be fooled by statements that don't hold up to quantitative analysis. <h3><a href="links/success_with_science.html">success with science</a></h3> Are you a success with science? Understanding science involves more than merely learning its vocabulary or knowing certain facts. Especially in the physical sciences, scientific concepts begin to make sense only when students apply them. Experts disagree as to whether language precedes thought or thought precedes language, but no one doubts that the mastery of a new vocabulary gives a person access to, and the means of organizing, ever more complex ideas. When your science vocabulary is in place, that is, when you are familiar with the terms, mathematical relationships, and visual images that anchor the concepts you are learning, you will find your mental world expanding. You will think thoughts you've never thought before. And when you try to tell someone else what you are thinking, they will understand! The skills you will learn in science are as empowering as they are indispensable. Science can be done by almost anyone who has the curiosity, the persistence, and the training to do the work. The notion that only geniuses do science misses this point. </body>