University of Arizona
Institute for Mathematics and Education

The Tucson Teachers' Circle

Victor Piercey and Sheila Tobias presented Helping Students to Overcome Math Anxiety

    October 19, 2010


Victor Piercey introduced the issue of math anxiety and encouraged participants in groups to share their own personal experiences of being stuck solving problems. Participants were given a selection of non-routine problems to solve. Time was given to work on problems of choice.

A rich discussion followed the problem solving. Questions addressed included -

  • Why did you choose the problem you did?
  • What strategies did you use?
  • Did you get stuck? If so, what did you do to get unstuck?


    • vICTOR iNTRO discussion
    Victor Piercey introduced the issue of math anxiety. Groups discussed personal experiences with struggling on math problems.


    working Sheila Tobias Large group
    Groups tackled non-routine problems. Sheila Tobias discussed levels of problem solving skills. The topic lead to rich discussions.