It is important that math practitioners and leaders consider math anxiety research in order to employ structures and experiences aimed to reduce anxiety and ultimately foster students’ confidence as math learners. This session will focus on recent research about factors that contribute to math anxiety and how anxiety impacts on learning and teaching development. In this session, participants will be provided with practical strategies on how to recognize math anxiety, reduce math anxiety, and build confidence from both teacher and student perspectives. Developing positive attitudes and emotions towards math is a critical next step for Ontario and beyond.

Bios:

With over 25 years of teaching experience, Dr. Mary Reid brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to her role as Assistant Professor of math education at OISE. Prior to her life at OISE, Mary was a classroom teacher, instructional leader, education officer at the Education Quality Accountability Office (EQAO), vice-principal and principal. She has published research in the areas of math content knowledge of elementary pre-service teachers, math anxiety in the classroom, the gender gap in STEM, and building efficacy for math teaching. Her research would be of interest to those seeking to enhance math teacher education through building math capacities of pre-service and in-service teachers.

Over the span of his 26-year career, Dr. Steven Reid has been a tireless advocate for students, and has served as an educational assistant, classroom teacher, principal and supervisory officer. Most recently, Steven joined EQAO as the Chief Assessment Officer in October 2017. He is passionate about the current work to modernize the EQAO assessments program, to better reflect the experience of students in the classroom. Steven is also a Sessional Lecturer at OISE focused on building the confidence of graduate students in math learning and teaching. In his various roles, he has worked with educators in the areas of student assessment, data management, strategic planning, and educational leadership.