2 Cognitive approaches

Strategies covered in this section will focus on your thought processes and how you might alter these in order to get into a good frame of mind to study maths. Click on the four different sections below for suggestions of how you can reduce your maths anxiety levels by changing the way you think.

• Cognitive reframing – the aim of this is to shift the mindset away from something negative to something more positive. In this case, countering any negative thoughts and beliefs that you are bad at maths with something more constructive, such as ‘I’m not bad at maths; I’ve just had some bad experiences’ or ‘maths can be hard, but I can do it’. Or maybe ‘my brain is reacting to keep me safe from a perceived threat and I understand why it is doing this’.
• Visualise how you will feel once you have completed a maths task as this may give you the motivation to get started. Often the fear of something is worse than actually doing it.
• Create a growth mindset – in a nutshell, a growth mindset simply means believing you have the ability to learn. Just because you don’t understand a maths problem now doesn’t mean you will never be able to understand it – it just means you don’t understand it yet. This is potentially a very powerful tool as evidence shows that students who have a growth mindset are more likely to succeed (Dweck, 2006). The opposite of a growth mindset is a fixed mindset which can be described as a belief that certain abilities are fixed at birth and are therefore described as innate. An example of a fixed mindset is the belief that you’ll just never be any good at maths. Changing beliefs can be challenging and like everything else takes effort. There are some good strategies for fostering a growth mindset here [1].
• Realistic expectations – alongside a growth mindset, it’s also useful to have realistic expectations of what you’re capable of – maybe it’s okay not to get a distinction – perhaps just getting a pass is enough. Perhaps you are used to achieving high scores in your assessments in the past but now you have moved on to more advanced modules, maybe it’s not realistic to expect the same high grades. Or perhaps it’s okay to accept that you might not score as high on the maths parts of your assignments compared to other parts of your coursework.