MindfulMath
Math anxiety is a widespread issue that affects students’ emotional well-being and math learning. Yet, existing systems for math learning do not address the need for supporting students with math anxiety.
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 online experiment with secondary school students 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.Â
We have recently further enhanced this original MindfulMath Tutor by integrating adaptive features and LLM-based mindful chat, in an intelligent tutoring system. In the new version, students receive adaptive, more flexible scaffold and messages from the virtual agent “Maddox”, and freely chat with him to share concerns and get mindful guidance (that is LLM-generated based on students’ input).
Project members: Mirella Hladký (lead), Vera Rief, Mareike Silber, Stephanie Heel, Minju Yoo, and Tomo Nagashima
Relevant publications
- Hladký, M., Silber, M., & Nagashima, T. (2025). The MindfulMath Tutor: A mindfulness-infused learning environment to battle math anxiety. In Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA’25), Yokohama, Japan [pdf]
Â