How to Build a Healthy Math Identity

Math is often thought of as the school subject most divorced from student emotions. But as educator Liesl McConchie has found over 25 years of teaching and studying how the brain learns, a student’s ability to learn math is deeply influenced by their emotional relationship to it. Does math conjure up feelings of dread, frustration, and anxiety? Or does walking into the math classroom trigger feelings like curiosity, excitement, and confidence? Liesl calls this relationship a learner’s “math identity.” And fortunately, there are a number of strategies teachers can use to build healthy versions of those math identities—and improve students’ cognitive relationship with math.

By asking the class to draw their conception of a world ruled by math, a teacher is able to see how each student perceives the subject. Is their version of “Mathland” a wondrous world enabled by math symbols, or a dungeon where robots force children to memorize equations? The nature of the drawings provides insight into the feelings about math that each student is bringing to the classroom.

The cultural perception of math also plays an important role. Often students are exposed to stereotypical representations of math whizzes as characters who are socially awkward and physically unattractive. Educators can break these stereotypes with examples of real-world figures, like Nohemi Sepulveda,  who utilize math to accomplish amazing things. 

A student’s internal voice can be the negative influence that’s most difficult to shake. Teachers can ask the class to imagine a physical representation of that negative voice as a “math gremlin” that sits on their shoulder whispering discouraging thoughts. After externalizing the source of that negativity, students can crumple up their math gremlin and throw it in the trash, freeing up their internal voice to reflect a more positive, constructive narrative.

To learn more about the research cited in the video, check out the resources below.

• Stanislaw Schukajlow, Katrin Rakoczy, and Reinhard Pekrun’s survey paper on the research surrounding students’ emotions and motivation in mathematics (2023)

• Debbie Epstein, Heather Mendick, and Marie-Pierre Moreau’s analysis of how young people interpret popular representations of mathematics in culture (2010)

• Sirui Wan, Fani Lauermann, Drew H. Bailey, and Jacquelynne S. Eccles’ meta-analysis on how students perceive themselves as either a “math person” or “language person” (2021)

Find more research-based ideas for how to build student confidence and a healthy math identity in the classroom, read Liesl McConchie’s article for Edutopia, “4 Activities to Foster a Positive Math Identity” or check out her book Building a Positive Math Identity: A Brain Science Approach.