Poster #80 - Math Anxious Elementary School Teachers Undermine Students’ Math Learning

• In Event: 3-053 - Poster Session 10
  In Poster Session: PS 10 Section - Education, Schooling

Integrative Statement

Adults’ math anxiety is not only negatively related to their own math performance, but is also negatively related to the math learning of others with whom they interact. We specifically explore whether early elementary school teachers’ math anxiety is related to lower math achievement for students they are teaching. Math anxiety is characterized by feelings of fear and apprehension regarding mathematics (Ashcraft, 2002; Hembree, 1990). While math anxiety is fairly prevalent in the general population, it is particularly prevalent among those who become elementary school teachers. Students studying early education have the highest level of math anxiety of any college major (Hembree, 1990), which is a particularly concerning finding given that the majority of the math-related input children receive during their early elementary school years likely comes from their teachers.

Previous research reported that female elementary school teachers’ math anxiety negatively relates to their female students’ math performance, such that the higher a teachers’ anxiety, the lower their female students’ math knowledge at the end of the school year (Beilock et al, 2010). For male students, the relation was in the same direction but was non-significant. However, recent research examining the impact of parents’ math anxiety on their children’s math learning shows negative impacts for both boys and girls (Berkowitz et al., 2015; Maloney et al., 2015). In the current study, we ask whether this same effect is visible for boys, whether it is specific to girls, or more pronounced in girls, using data from a larger study examining the impact of a parent-based intervention designed to help parents to talk about math with their 1st grade children (Berkowitz et al, 2015).

We examine whether teachers’ math anxiety relates to students’ end of year math performance. Using hierarchical linear modeling to account for the nested nature of data, we specified a two level model to predict children’s end of year math performance. We find that teachers’ math anxiety negatively related to children’s math performance at the end of the school year (B= -1.69, t=-2.65, p=0.01), but not at the beginning of the year (B= -0.66, t=-0.60, p=0.55). The higher a teachers’ math anxiety, the less children learned over the course of the school year, controlling for children’s fall math performance. We find no significant interaction with the child’s sex (B= 0.06, t=0.16, p=0.87), suggesting that both boys and girls were negatively impacted by their teachers’ math anxiety. However, the decrease in math learning, related to being in a high math anxious teachers' classroom, is 15% larger for girl than for boys though this difference is not statistically significant.

While an individuals’ math anxiety can undermine her own math performance (Ashcraft & Kirk, 2001), the present study provides additional evidence that one person’s math anxiety can negatively impact those around them, with a particular focus on intergenerational effects. Understanding that teachers’ math anxiety impacts children regardless of gender highlights the need for development of targeted interventions to decrease teachers’ math anxiety, and to support teachers in providing high quality math input.

Authors

• Marjorie Weber Schaeffer, University of Chicago
  Presenting Author

• Christopher S. Rozek, University of Chicago
  Non-Presenting Author

• Erin Maloney, University of Ottawa
  Non-Presenting Author

• Talia Berkowitz, University of Chicago
  Non-Presenting Author

• Susan C. Levine, University of Chicago
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sian L. Beilock, Barnard College
  Non-Presenting Author