Exploring primary teachers’ understanding and support of children with Mathematics Anxiety

This study investigates primary teachers’ understanding of MA and how they support children with mathematics anxiety (MA). The causes, prevalence, and negative impact of MA on children and young people’s (CYP’s) mathematics learning, performance, attitude, and mental health have been well investigated. It has been suggested that MA develops due to students’ prior negative experiences learning mathematics in the classroom and that teachers play significant roles in forming CYP’s MA. Eleven primary school teachers were recruited from four different schools in South-West England. Semi-structured interviews were used; eleven individual semi-structured interviews were conducted, and the data were analysed via reflexive thematic analysis. The findings revealed that these primary teachers’ awareness and understanding of MA were low, particularly in recognising how their own thoughts and feelings about learning and teaching maths may affect CYP’s experience of maths anxiety and maths learning. They also had limited strategies to support children with mathematics anxiety. The number of participants in this study was small, limited to South-west England, and not controlled for demographic factors such as gender, race, work experience, or age, making them unrepresentative of the entire primary teacher population. Increasing primary teachers’ awareness and deepening their understanding of MA and its potential impact on individual children is necessary, and teachers may need support in identifying children with MA and in using relevant strategies explicitly aimed at reducing MA and preventing its formation and development.