Motivating students and banishing math anxiety

Everyday life in vocational mathematics

Abstract

The article describes the findings made in the Lumatikka2: Mathematics of Vocational Education in a Student-Centred Manner in-service training courses organized in 2019–2022 and the related reflections on the teaching and learning of professional mathematics. Teachers taking part in the course are often concerned about the poor baseline of their students' mathematics, the negative view of mathematics, and the math anxiety they experience. The article also describes approaches to address these challenges. These include, for example, the student's reality-oriented learning assignments, languaging, collaborative learning methods and learning from the experiences of other mathematics teachers.