Math anxiety : A study promoting teaching for students with math anxiety

During our studies to becom special teachers in mathematics development, we have developed an interest in students who show resistance to the subject of matehmatics or mathematics teaching. The purpose of the study is to investigate teaching that promotes learning for pupils in mathematics anxiety, to distinguish any challenges that the teachers might encounter in teaching and to make visible future collaboration between the teachers and the special education teachers to support learning for pupils with mathematics anxiety. This has been done through semi-structured interviews and observations of primary and middle school teachers. The method used was inspired by grounded theory. The results were analyzed using sociocultural theory. The entire study rests on a relational perspective, which sees the student in difficulties and not with difficulties. The conclusion drawn from the study was that the teachers agreed with research in the field about which teaching methods are beneficial for students in mathematics anxiety. They also agreed with the research about the challenges that can arise in working with these students. Several different examples of collaboration between the teachers and the special education teachers emerged during the interviews. However, several challenges were identified which prevent teachers from implementing these methods in everyday teaching. A challenge in this may, for example, be that the special teachers in mathematics development are few in the schools. Another challenge can be that the teachers request pedagogical guidance where didactic issues can be raised, but that forum is missing in many schools