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Math anxiety Bill of Rights

By Murray Bourne, 09 Dec 2010

This is interesting: Student's Math Anxiety Bill of Rights, by Sandra Davis.

I have re-ordered the list and grouped them according to the main themes.

math anxiety bill of rights

Emotions

I have the right to learn at my own pace and not feel put down or stupid if I'm slower than someone else.

I have the right to feel good about myself regardless of my abilities in math.

I have the right to relax.

I have the right not to base my self-worth on my math skills.

I have the right to dislike math.

Learning approaches

I have the right to ask whatever questions I have.

I have the right to need extra help.

I have the right to ask a teacher or tutor for help.

I have the right to say I don't understand.

I have the right to not understand.

Self-worth

I have the right to view myself as capable of learning math.

I have the right to be treated as a competent person.

I have the right to define success in my own terms.

360° (evaluation works both ways)

I have the right to evaluate my math instructors and how they teach.

(Source: Univ of Minnesota)

Yes, the "self-worth" angle is probably overly emphasized in Western education, but it is still vitally important. Our emotions are the key to our motivation.

Nobody likes to feel stupid, and sadly, that's the emotion many people experience with math.

See the 9 Comments below.

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HTML: You can use simple tags like <b>, <a href="...">, etc.

To enter math, you can can either:

  1. Use simple calculator-like input in the following format (surround your math in backticks, or qq on tablet or phone):
    `a^2 = sqrt(b^2 + c^2)`
    (See more on ASCIIMath syntax); or
  2. Use simple LaTeX in the following format. Surround your math with \( and \).
    \( \int g dx = \sqrt{\frac{a}{b}} \)
    (This is standard simple LaTeX.)

NOTE: You can mix both types of math entry in your comment.

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