Publication

The MindfulMath Tutor: A mindfulness-infused learning environment to battle math anxiety

Mirella Hladký, Mareike Silber, Tomohiro Nagashima

CHI2025 EA · 2025

@inproceedings{hladký2025the,
  title     = {The MindfulMath Tutor: A mindfulness-infused learning environment to battle math anxiety},
  author    = {Mirella Hladký and Mareike Silber and Tomohiro Nagashima},
  booktitle = {CHI2025 EA},
  year      = {2025},
  doi       = {10.1145/3706599.3719922},
}

Abstract

Math anxiety is a widespread issue that affects students’ emotional well-being and math learning. We developed the MindfulMath Tutor, an interactive mindfulness-infused math learning system with a pedagogical agent that provides both cognitive and socio-emotional support, using positive mindful language and breathing exercises. Our experiment with 31 secondary school students (with medium to high math anxiety) showed that the MindfulMath Tutor helped students significantly reduce their state math anxiety while achieving a similar level of learning benefits, when compared against a tutor version without mindfulness components. Our mindfulness-infused math tutor offers an interactive math learning environment that effectively supports student learning while reducing math anxiety.