Math anxiety and contemplative practices in post-secondary contexts

Over fifty years ago, it was recognized that certain individuals became anxious when engaging in the practice of mathematics. Known as ‘math anxiety’, research indicates that: 1. Math anxiety affects math performance. The greater the anxiety, the lower the score in the math-related course. 2. Math anxiety leads to math avoidance. Students with math anxiety deny themselves a future in math-related careers, simply by avoiding subjects and jobs which use or include mathematics. This study examined the impact of introducing contemplative practices to post-secondary students taking mandatory first year math courses. Using a case study, the goal was to investigate whether contemplative practices decreased math anxiety. The evidence-based contemplative practices were practiced over one semester, during math courses and as part of the participants’ personal practice. The triangulation of field notes, observations, a focus group discussion, and the semi-structured interviews identified the sources of self-perceived math anxiety and investigated the use of contemplative practices as viable interventions to reduce math anxiety. Results indicated that, within this local and place-based context, contemplative practices can be used by first-year math students to alleviate math anxiety and to support future coursework in mathematics or STEM-related fields to attain greater satisfaction and success in their lives.Education, Faculty ofEducation, School of (Okanagan)Graduat