Math performance is negatively related to math anxiety (MA), though MA may impact certain math skills more than others. We investigated whether the relation between MA and math performance is affected by task features, such as number type (e.g., fractions, whole numbers, percentages), number format (symbolic vs. nonsymbolic), and ratio component…

Most higher education institutions in the UK now offer some form of additional individual support for mathematics and statistics. Whilst numerous studies have shown mathematics support can improve grades and reduce failure rates, there is a lack of research on other outcomes of interest such as anxiety or confidence, and very little research…

Mathematics is a common component of many science and social science degrees, but frequently not considered a prerequisite for their study. This can lead to some students studying mathematics components at undergraduate level with little or no previous mathematical learning and varying levels of motivation, or desire, to study mathematics. This…

Statistics anxiety is experienced by a large proportion of psychology students, even though conducting statistical analyses is a fundamental skill for students to acquire. The research on statistics anxiety has tended to explore either dispositional factors (e.g. personality) or situational factors (e.g. teacher effects). One potential predictor…

Primary school teachers are important in children's learning of mathematics, and maths anxiety development has been partly attributed to children's classroom experiences (Das & Das, 2013). Maths anxiety was explored in UK primary school teachers, with a view to understanding its development and impact. Data from four semi-structured individual…

This study represents the implementation of an English version of the Mathematics Teaching Anxiety Scale (MTAS), originally published in Turkey (Sari, 2014). One hundred and twenty-seven primary school teachers from across the U.K. completed the survey, including 74 qualified teachers and 53 trainees. Following item-reduction and factor analysis,…

This paper argues that an Arts-Based Research (ABR) methodology, drawing on the Ethnofiction work of filmmaker Jean Rouch, can facilitate new ways of researching mathematics, science and education more generally by: (i) making past learning experiences more accessible and (ii) considering the affective engagement of the audience as interrogator of…

There are currently many mathematics anxiety rating scales designed typically for adult and older children populations, yet there remains a lack of assessment tools for younger children (< 7 years of age) despite a recent focus on this age range. Following previous testing and validation, the 26-item iteration of the Children's Mathematics…

Psychology students often feel anxious about learning statistics, which can impact their performance. However, little research has explored statistics confidence, which may be an important way to reduce the negative connotations of associating statistics with anxiety. We aimed to explore whether modifying an existing measure of statistics anxiety…

Most studies of children's attitudes to mathematics have dealt with children in second grade or later, and have suggested that attitudes deteriorate, and anxiety increases with age. The present study investigated attitudes to mathematics in 67 English and 49 Chinese children at the end of their first year of school. The participants were given…

Statistics anxiety is experienced by a large number of psychology students, and previous research has examined a range of potential correlates, including academic performance, mathematical ability and psychological predictors. These varying predictors are often considered separately, although there may be shared variance between them. In the…

The issue of poor statistical literacy amongst undergraduates in the United Kingdom is well documented. At university level, where poor statistics skills impact particularly on social science programmes, embedding is often used as a remedy. However, embedding represents a surface approach to the problem. It ignores the barriers to learning that…

The aim of this qualitative study is to explore adults' motivation to learn mathematics in the workplace and the role that the trade union education approach promoted in the United Kingdom plays in that motivation. The findings draw on data from 20 semi-structured in-depth interviews with adults learning mathematics, organised through their trade…

Against the backdrop of contemporary debates surrounding the public role of criminology, this article argues that a key barrier to ensuring that the next generation of criminologists is equipped with the skills necessary to engage in critical forms of citizenship, is the quantitative "skills gap" that undergraduate students possess as a…

Due to the empirical nature of the discipline, psychology students, during the course of their degree, are required to become proficient with a range of quantitative methods. Unfortunately many of these students experience high levels of maths anxiety, which can have a damaging effect on this aspect of their educational development. The first…