When is it okay for children as young as first and second grade to be stressed out beyond compare over a test? Many children get very stressed when it comes to school but especially when it comes down to mathematics.
What is the cause for such high- achieving students to be so stressed over math they they conversely lower their own abilities to excel? "The team showed that a high degree of math anxiety undermined performance of otherwise successful students, placing them almost half a school year behind their less anxious peers, in terms of math achievement." says the University of Chicago.
This study shows that children who are high achieving at a young age actually put more stress on them selves and therefore increase their anxiety. Children who maybe aren't as high achieving seem to be more relaxed and able, in time, to reduce anxiety levels when it comes to subjects such as math. They believe that these children have no issues with anxiety because as they learn they develop simpler and over all less complicated ways of understanding the material.
I remember as a child that I started out being very successful in mathematics. It sort of just came to me without much effort, which ended up being a major downfall. Once concepts started to get more complicated my mind would not be able to grasp a concept because i would only think of it in the original context. I dont know about other students but this was a common issue amongst the children in my school.
http://news.uchicago.edu/article/2012/09/12/math-anxiety-causes-trouble-students-early-first-grade
That is very interesting. I was a "high achieving" kid and yet I did not have anxiety. I also went through school when there was less pressure given to standardized testing. Anyway, I have a hard time buying this premise because I know a lot of "laid back" students who still don't perform well. I am sure there is some other underlying reason.
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