Finds that computer and mathematics avoidance among women is the result of attitudes, expectations, and discrimination. Present-day creative computing relies upon skills not limited to those with a math and science orientation, and should prove a rewarding occupation to women. (DM)

Teachers' negative impressions of college mathematics correlate with negative feelings about teaching mathematics. Includes an inventory of 20 questions to determine whether teachers perceive flexibility as a factor that can facilitate the effective teaching of mathematics. (MLF)

Excerpts from a guide for college students in conquering mathematics anxiety are presented. Selections, reconfigured for counselor and advisor use, offer coping techniques for overcoming fear of mathematics, the conviction that mathematics is a White male domain, and the assumption that one cannot be good in both mathematics and language arts.…

Math anxiety has serious consequences for those who experience it in daily life, at school, or at work. A cognitive process approach makes knowledge work for the learner, joins skill and content, links motivation to cognition, and uses social communities. (JOW)

Discussion of relationships between computer anxiety and achievement focuses on a study of students enrolled in a required computer course in an urban university. Topics discussed include the Computer Anxiety Scale; Computer Aptitude, Literacy and Interest Profile; Math Anxiety Rating Scale; and the correlation between high anxiety and low…

Presents a historical overview and summary of research conducted on simple arithmetic in the past 20 years. Presents two seemingly different directions in current research, one on the role of working memory in mental arithmetic and one on the possible cognitive consequences of mathematics anxiety. Contains 108 references. (MKR)

Students are often as mystified by mathematical procedures as they are by magic tricks. This article suggests ways of making the estimation of how many jelly beans in a jar and the 20-questions game less magical and more understandable. (MKR)

Investigates attitudes toward mathematics of elementary school teachers and students in rural Texas. Finds a slight negative correlation between teachers' mathematics anxiety level and third-, fifth-, and sixth-grade students' attitude toward mathematics. Finds that, although fourth-grade teachers had the most positive attitude toward mathematics,…

Explores the relationship between mathematics instruction and writing instruction, particularly their similarity in causing student anxiety. Offers specific teaching methods for reducing writing anxiety. (HB)

The Family Math Program is an outgrowth of the Equals Program at the Lawrence Hall of Science at UC Berkeley. Piloted in 1982 in Richmond, California, this widespread program boasts a simple philosophy: Families "doing math" will get the same result as families who read--improved skills and enjoyment. The program also confronts parental…

Before a statistics course, 49 adults completed the Wide Range Achievement Test-Revised (WRAT-R). Test performance (aptitude) and course performance correlated, but the WRAT-R made prediction errors 35% of the time. Students with negative attitudes about statistics performed more poorly in the course. (SK)

Focuses on mathematics anxiety in 9- to 11-year-old children. Compares the mathematics anxiety of pupils taught in a traditional manner with that of pupils whose teachers adopted an alternative teaching approach that emphasizes problem solving and discussion of the pupil's own informal strategies. Concludes that pupils exposed to the traditional…

Preservice elementary teachers have been shown to generally possess poor mathematical knowledge (e.g. Goulding, Rowland, & Barber, 2002) and also strong negative attitudes toward mathematics (e.g. MacNab & Payne, 2004). Recently, national organizations have proposed interventions to address these issues (Conference Board of the…

The study investigated the changes in levels of mathematics anxiety among pre-service teachers in six different sections of a mathematics method courses for early childhood/elementary education pre-service teachers. The changes were a function of using Bruner's framework of developing conceptual knowledge before procedural knowledge and using…

The study investigated the relationship between mathematics anxiety and mathematics teacher efficacy among elementary preservice teachers. Participants included 28 elementary preservice teachers at a mid-size university in the southeastern United States who had just completed a mathematics methods course. Data sources included the Mathematics…