Reading through articles for my study I will be considering the following questions:
“Mathematics anxiety and coping strategies among middle school students” authored by Skaalvik explored the relationships between student’s goal setting and different coping strategies used to survive math courses despite feelings of anxiety. Two significant coping mechanisms, self-protective and problem-focused, were identified. This article highlights actions such a hiding work, or avoiding exposure for the fear of being called out by a teacher as ways that a students math anxiety can lead to decreased understanding of concepts over time. I find this evidenced in my classroom as students who don’t ask questions or seek help during work time are incorrectly assumed to understand the material and so no remediation or one-on-one teaching takes place, but upon deeper questioning they show a complete lack of procedural competence. This related directly to my driving question which seeks to find a connection between math anxiety and student performance on math related tasks. If a student is avoiding help by refusing to appear vulnerable then their performance will suffer over time. Considerations that I might make in my methodology because of this article include looking for common behaviors in my students who survey for high levels of math anxiety. There may be some insight gained when looking closely at the actions these students take in order to protect their egos. “Math anxiety: Overcoming a major obstacle to the improvement of student math performance” authored by Furner and Bernam explored The NCTMs (National Council for Teachers of Mathematics) recognition of math anxiety as a problem that teachers have to actively combat in our students. The article goes on to say that current methodologies used in teaching mathematics are partly responsible for the levels of anxiety that we see and any reforms to teaching of mathematics have to start with teacher training around the standards set by NCTM. This article outlines other studies that discuss causes of math anxiety, best practices for math instruction and ways to reduce math anxiety in students. All of these topics are directly related to my study and will form the major body of my work. Most notably this article highlights that math should be taught with a focus on the process for problem solving rather than computation or repetitive processing which will be something I must consider when thinking of best practices for reducing anxiety in my students. “The Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale, a brief version: Psychometric data” authored by Suinn and Winston explores the history of the MARS (Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale) as well as the many different iterations of the scale that have evolved over time. The MARS began as a 98 item inventory for identifying math anxiety but was cut down to 30 items by researchers seeking to get quicker data without sacrificing accuracy of identifying math anxiety. For my study I will be using a 10 item inventory that is based on the 30 item version of the MARS. All categorical items were considered and retained but questions were tailored to the experience that my students have as high school students. As I conduct and analyze the 10 item surveys I will have to consider if a longer survey would have been more valid or if high school students, bored by a survey longer than 10 items, would skip over or rush through questions.
1 Comment
10/27/2018 04:49:07 pm
Brandon - you're researching a really interesting topic, which is think is probably going to be difficult to get concrete answers to. My students in language also get anxiety when they have to present/speak in front of their peers in a foreign language and it is difficult to get them to overcome that - I'm always wondering how to make students more comfortable in the classroom. It's hard when they won't come for help and you know that they really need it. It sounds like the results from your research project will really make a difference in your classroom. Good luck! I'm also doing about 9 survey questions & wondered
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