‘Math is not for me’. Investigating Mathematics Anxiety in Secondary and Higher Education: A Critical Discussion of Current Practices and Future Recommendations

Mathematics anxiety is a contemporary issue, characterized by feelings of stress, worry, apprehension, or fear, that interferes with one’s ability to manipulate and resolve mathematical tasks. The challenges of mathematics anxiety are considerable and produce a cascade of cause-effect repercussions. Accordingly, it is imperative to investigate this issue in secondary and higher education, as this educational era seemingly serves as a triggering point for this condition, significantly affecting individuals’ decisions towards education, academic pursues, professional orientation and so on. The main points elucidated by the present study suggest that curriculum and institutional frameworks, instructional strategies, parental influences, and individualized or psychotherapeutic interventions play a central role towards understanding and addressing mathematics anxiety, with their effects ranging across various cognitive, emotional and behavioral paradigms. Recommendations span in similar grounds in which –among other discussion arguments– the importance of improved institutional and parental approaches is strongly highlighted, as it could potentially provide better insights concerning early intervention. Keywords: Mathematics anxiety, parental influences, institution pressures, teaching strategies, anxiety susceptibility