Not all Elementary School Teachers are Scared of Math
Author(s) / Creator(s)
Artemenko, Christina
Masson, Nicolas
Georges, Carrie
Nuerk, Hans-Christoph
Krzysztof, Cipora
Abstract / Description
Teachers are strong role models for their pupils, especially at the very beginning of education, and as such, pupils tend to share their teacher’s attitudes. This also holds true for math: If teachers feel anxious about math, the consequences on the mathematical education of their pupils is detrimental.
Previous studies have shown that (future) elementary school teachers have higher levels of math anxiety than most people studying other subjects. Here, we set out to conceptually replicate these findings (e.g., meta-analysis by Hembree, 1990) by comparing math anxiety levels of pre-service and in-service German and Belgian elementary school teachers to a reference group of German university students from various fields of study. Moreover, we questioned this finding by asking which elementary school teachers experience math anxiety, considering gender, specialization, and experience, and investigated how math anxiety relates to teaching attitudes towards math.
We replicated the previous finding by showing that female elementary school teachers have a higher level of math anxiety as compared to other female students. Importantly, female elementary school teachers without math specialization indeed had higher levels of math anxiety than female students from other fields. In contrast, female elementary school teachers with math specialization did not show an increased level of math anxiety as compared to the reference sample. Considering that not only these but all teachers, regardless of specialization, teach math in elementary school in the investigated educational systems, the math anxiety of elementary school teachers is a potential problem for their pupils’ math attitudes and learning.
Keyword(s)
math anxiety elementary school teachers teacher education replicationPersistent Identifier
Date of first publication
2021-04-10
Journal title
Journal of Numerical Cognition
Publisher
PsychArchives
Publication status
acceptedVersion
Review status
reviewed
Is version of
Citation
Artemenko, C., Masson, N. Georges, C., Nuerk, H.-C., & Krzysztof, C. (in press). Not all elementary school teachers are scared of math [Author accepted manuscript]. Journal of Numerical Cognition.
http://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.4766
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Artemenko_Masson_Georges_et_al._2021_Elementary_School_JNC_AAM.pdfAdobe PDF - 956.97KBMD5: 7c2be191b929dbcb3da157b2824d7baeDescription: Author Accepted Manuscript
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There are no other versions of this object.
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Artemenko, Christina
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Masson, Nicolas
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Georges, Carrie
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Nuerk, Hans-Christoph
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Krzysztof, Cipora
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PsychArchives acquisition timestamp2021-04-10T08:22:49Z
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Made available on2021-04-10T08:22:49Z
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Date of first publication2021-04-10
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Abstract / DescriptionTeachers are strong role models for their pupils, especially at the very beginning of education, and as such, pupils tend to share their teacher’s attitudes. This also holds true for math: If teachers feel anxious about math, the consequences on the mathematical education of their pupils is detrimental. Previous studies have shown that (future) elementary school teachers have higher levels of math anxiety than most people studying other subjects. Here, we set out to conceptually replicate these findings (e.g., meta-analysis by Hembree, 1990) by comparing math anxiety levels of pre-service and in-service German and Belgian elementary school teachers to a reference group of German university students from various fields of study. Moreover, we questioned this finding by asking which elementary school teachers experience math anxiety, considering gender, specialization, and experience, and investigated how math anxiety relates to teaching attitudes towards math. We replicated the previous finding by showing that female elementary school teachers have a higher level of math anxiety as compared to other female students. Importantly, female elementary school teachers without math specialization indeed had higher levels of math anxiety than female students from other fields. In contrast, female elementary school teachers with math specialization did not show an increased level of math anxiety as compared to the reference sample. Considering that not only these but all teachers, regardless of specialization, teach math in elementary school in the investigated educational systems, the math anxiety of elementary school teachers is a potential problem for their pupils’ math attitudes and learning.en_US
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Publication statusacceptedVersion
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Review statusreviewed
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CitationArtemenko, C., Masson, N. Georges, C., Nuerk, H.-C., & Krzysztof, C. (in press). Not all elementary school teachers are scared of math [Author accepted manuscript]. Journal of Numerical Cognition. http://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.4766
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ISSN2363-8761
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Persistent Identifierhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12034/4206
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Persistent Identifierhttps://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.4766
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Language of contentengen_US
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PublisherPsychArchivesen_US
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Is version ofhttps://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/wej8z
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Is version ofhttps://doi.org/10.5964/jnc.6063
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Is version ofhttps://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.6108
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Is related tohttps://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/wej8z
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Is related tohttps://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.5227
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Is related tohttps://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.6108
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Keyword(s)math anxietyen_US
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Keyword(s)elementary school teachersen_US
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Keyword(s)teacher educationen_US
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Keyword(s)replicationen_US
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Dewey Decimal Classification number(s)150
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TitleNot all Elementary School Teachers are Scared of Mathen_US
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DRO typearticleen_US
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Journal titleJournal of Numerical Cognition
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Visible tag(s)PsychOpen GOLDen_US
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Visible tag(s)Accepted Manuscripten_US