Teacher Math Knowledge, Anxiety, and Mind-Sets as Predictors of Instructional Practices and Student Math Learning

• In Event: Can Teacher Knowledge, Attitudes, and Beliefs Explain Changes in Student Mathematics Learning and Engagement?

Abstract

Theoretical and empirical work has suggested the importance of teachers’ knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs for their students’ learning (Ernest, 1989; Beilock et al., 2010). Importantly, work also shows that these can be changed, thus acting as potential points of intervention for teachers (Garet et al., 2016; Gresham, 2007; Liu, 2008). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine how teacher math knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs relate to student math learning and to examine math instructional practices as a potential mediator of any relations between teacher factors and student math learning. We specifically focus on math knowledge for teaching (knowledge), math anxiety (attitude), and math fixed mindset (belief; specifically the belief that ability in math is unchangeable).

Participants in our preliminary sample were 29 first-grade teachers in Florida and their 324 students. The final sample of teachers presented on will be approximately 230. Teachers reported their years of teaching experience and completed measures of their general math anxiety and anxiety about teaching math (Authors, 2019), math knowledge for teaching (Authors, 2017), and mathematical fixed mindset (Dweck, Chiu, & Hong, 1995) in the fall of 2018. In the spring of 2019, teachers reported their instructional practices (SEC; Blank, Porter, & Smithson, 2001). Students took a 22-item math test in the fall and spring (Authors, 2017).

Tables 1 and 2 display zero-order correlations between key variables. Using multilevel models, we examined the relation of teacher math knowledge, general and teaching-specific math anxiety, and math fixed mindset beliefs with students’ spring math scores, while covarying out students’ fall math scores, free/reduced lunch status, and gender (at level 1) as well as teacher’s year of experience (at level 2). The only significant teacher predictors of changes in student math learning were teachers’ years of experience (b = .004, seb = .001, p < .001) and teachers’ anxiety about teaching math (b = -.031, seb = .016, p = .045; Table 3). Teachers’ math knowledge for teaching, general math anxiety, and fixed math mindset beliefs were unrelated to student math learning. As a first step to examine whether instructional practices might mediate these relations, we examined whether teacher years of experience and anxiety about teaching math were correlated with any of the five different instruction practices and found that they were not (Table 2). Thus these were not tested as mediators.

These findings suggest that teachers with more experience and less anxiety about teaching math had students who learned more math over the course of the school year, after accounting for student-level covariates and other teacher variables. We were unable to identify any instruction practices that might mediate these relations. When the full data are available for the conference (the spring achievement data from May are currently being entered), we will be able to get a better view of what these relations look like. Thus far, these results suggest that anxiety about teaching math may be an important target for intervention.

Authors

• Colleen M. Ganley, Florida State University

• Connie Barroso Garcia, Texas A&M University - College Station

• Elyssa A. Geer, Purdue University

• Rachel A. Conlon, Florida State University

• Robert Schoen, Florida State University

• Chris Schatschneider, Florida State University