Understanding and Addressing Mathematics Anxiety

When educators see capable students shut down when faced with mathematics, it can be difficult to know how to break that cycle. This workshop explores a research-informed approach to help you understand and address mathematics anxiety in both students and teachers.  

You’ll explore its short- and long-term impacts, unpack its causes and symptoms, and apply evidence-based strategies through real case studies. You’ll also develop adaptive approaches to addressing maths anxiety, while reflecting on your school’s mathematics culture. By the end, you’ll have the practical resources and structured activities you need to build mathematical resilience and support learners. 

• Understand the latest theory and research. Align your lessons to the most relevant trends in mathematics teaching and adopt a multidisciplinary approach to addressing mathematics anxiety.
• Compare mathematics cultures between schools. Learn from other participants to develop new ideas on how mathematics is delivered in different school settings.  
• Explore mathematical resilience. Deep dive into mindset interventions to position mistakes as growth opportunities rather than failures.  
• Build comfort in ambiguity. Discuss and develop concepts that support students to keep trying when they don’t know an answer. 

Dr Sarah Buckley

Dr Sarah Buckley, BSc (Hons), PhD is a Senior Research Fellow at the Australian Council for Education Research (ACER), with a particular research interest in motivation and emotion in learning. Dr Buckley’s research expertise in this area includes her PhD, which investigated mathematics anxiety and motivation, and peer relationships using social network modelling. 

Roles

This program is designed for:

• principals    
• assistant principals
• system leaders
• teacher leaders
• teachers.  

School sectors  

This program is available to the following school sectors:  

• Victorian Government  
• Catholic  
• independent.  

This program is delivered as 1 full day workshop: face-to-face, 6.5 hours 

Program fees are significantly subsidised by the Department of Education.