Administrators name absences and math anxiety as top math-related challenges. Juliana Tapper explains the neurobiology of math anxiety, how it shows up as absenteeism and avoidance, and what teachers can watch for in daily routines.
Math anxiety triggers the amygdala (the brain’s fear center), which can produce fight/flight/freeze/fawn responses that undermine recall and problem solving.
Common classroom signs — daily bathroom requests, chronic early checkouts, repeated bathroom breaks on math days — often indicate a flight response rather than physiological need.
Students who experienced repeated fear around math can appear to ‘forget’ recently taught material because a fear state prevents retention and retrieval.
In this post we'll explore two things: math anxiety and how it contributes to absenteeism. Math Anxiety Is a Real Diagnosis Math anxiety is a real, defined, and studied diagnosis. I think it's more helpful to understand how math anxiety impacts the brains of our students.
To take this amygdala response one step further, we also know that when the brain is in this state, we struggle to recall information, retain information, or problem solve. I passed high school math, college math, and even hold a master's degree, yet I still rely on number sense rather than memorization to help me with multiplication because my brain tends to go into a fear state when I see it. If they are greeted by a traditional warm up featuring 10 problems they didn't understand yesterday, they will not feel safe.
As a math intervention specialist, this does not surprise me one bit. If you've ever gone to any trauma-informed teaching PD, you know that the amygdala is called the fear center of the brain and is responsible for triggering the flight or fight response (now referred to as flight, fight, freeze, or fawn). It can also look like a student going to the bathroom every single day as a way to escape (can you begin to see the connection to absenteeism?).
A child may decide they are “bad at math” during a counting game, a worksheet, or a tense homework session. For parents, “I can’t do this” brings another worry: Did something at home cause it? The evidence supports a cautious answer: math anxiety in children can be shaped through learning and socialization, but parents
Some 52% of primary school parents and 42% of secondary school parents surveyed by Barnardos said anxiety was the main reason for their child refusing to go to school.
School absence has increased among young people with socio-emotional difficulties and those who do not like school in the last 10 years, research has shown.
Researchers estimated 25.4% of four-year music students were chronically absent, compared with 37.3% of students without four consecutive years of music.
math confidence, math anxiety, math homework, elementary math, learning support, parent involvement, growth mindset, tutoring
They say showing up is half the battle. But across New York state, thousands of students are losing that fight before the morning bell even rings.
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