by Edyta Tehrani

Created on: January 21, 2009

Anxieties of adult learners often have their roots in negative childhood experiences in learning. Many children do not get proper attention at schools in areas of their weakness and experience many failures as a result. These failures creates in these children belief that they are bad in a given subject which later in life creates anxiety in a person whenever he is forced to master it. The demand for higher expertise in many professions in the workforce are growing, so are expectations of skills in people who desire to change profession. In such situations adults are forced to get more education and might be faced with old anxieties, but the good news is that it is possible to overcome them.

As a child, I had a bad experience with math. It just wasn't my area of strenght, so I developed a belief that I can never be any good at it. In the primary school years, I had a supportive teacher who helped me master basic math skills. When I went to High School, however, I wasn't so fortunate. My new math teacher didn't have a very good teaching ability and she wasn't willing to address the needs of struggling students. It was like a nightmare. When I finally graduated with barely passing mark; I vowed never to choose any profession in which advanced math skills are necessary.

Now, as a mother of two gifted children whom I homeschool, I decided to overcome my math anxiety. My children's entuhsiasm for learning everything rekindelled my own love of learning. I just took it as a challenge and started to do the basic algebra using some good books availible that explained concepts starting foem the simple ones gradually movingon to more complicated. I am astonished at how quickly I can learn it all because of my new, more relaxed attitude.

The truth is that all people have areas of weakness and strenght, but it doesn't mean that you should yield to anxiety and let your weakness hinder your succes in life. With some more willingness and more positive attitude, you also can overcome these anxieties and turn weaknesses into your strenghts.

The latest scientific reaserch results confirm this. Neurologists found out that even people with severe brain damage with a strong will and enough stimulus can regain their brain functions. It is called the plasticity of brain and it also explains many learning phenomenons such as children who teach themselves to read as early as age three. When a child has an intense desire to be able to read and challenges herself by continually trying to make sense of the letters she sees in her favourite books, her brain after a time creates neurological connections that make reading possible. It also happened to me my own experience.

When I was just three years old my mother got tired of reading to me the same stories over and over again, so I decided to learn reading them by myself. I took my favourite stories and spent hours on trying to make sense of them until finally my bewildered mom find out that I could not only read them, but I read them and anything else fluentlly. But I dodn't get the same stimulation ehen it comes to numbers hence my perceived weakness in math.

As an adult learner you can make concious choice to give your brain stimulation in the area that makes you anxcious until it creates new connections to faciliate your ability to master it. This is how I overcame my math weakness. I thoight to myself "If I could teach myself to readas a child of three, then how much more I would be able to teach myself math as an adult?"

There is good news on the horizon for you as well. Take the area of weakness and patiantely challenge yourself to master it. When this happens your anxiety will be all but gone.

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