Overcoming Math Anxiety

"The new edition retains the author's pungent analysis of what makes math "hard" for otherwise successful people and how women, more than men, become victims of a gendered view of math. The chapters on "Mathematics and Sex" and "Right- and Wrongheadedness" have been substantially updated to incorporate new research which demonstrates how little we really know about "sex differences" in brain organization and function. The hands-on experience in "Word-Problem Solving," "Everyday Math," and "Sunday Math" have been enlarged to include problems, puzzles, and strategies tried out in hundreds of math anxiety workshops Tobias and her colleagues have sponsored and observed in the past fifteen years. The programs described in detail in the last chapter are all new and include programs for women only, and those with substantial appeal for adults of both sexes returning to school for the training they need to get ahead." "What remains unchanged is the author's politics. Indeed, she sees "math anxiety" as a political issue. So long as people believe themselves to be disabled in mathematics and do not rise up and confront the social and pedagogical origins of their disabilities, they will be denied "math mental health." Tobias defines math mental health not as some bottom line of mathematical competence but as "the willingness to learn the math you need when you need it." From this perspective, in an ever more technical society, overcoming math anxiety can make the difference between high and low self-esteem, failure and success."--Jacket.