Mathematics anxiety can be a debilitating experience, and research shows that elementary-level preservice teachers experience high levels of mathematics anxiety. Current shifts in mathematics education from a procedural focus to a conceptual focus may exacerbate these high anxiety levels. The research reported in this study explored how preservice…

Many people find that solving story problems is challenging. A key source of the difficulty is symbolizing problem situations. In two experiments, we tested whether diagrams promoted successful symbolization of two-operator story problems, and we tested whether diagrams that depicted the integration of operations were more beneficial than diagrams…

Math anxiety can have an extraordinary impact on middle level students' ability to learn. However, certain classroom practices may be able to mitigate this impact. In terms of assessment practices, proficiency-based learning, also called competency-based learning or standards-based grading, may help establish a learning environment that either…

This quantitative, survey research investigated the prevalence of mathematics anxiety among 62 fourth and sixth grade primary level students (aged nine to 12 years). It also explored the correlation between mathematics performance and mathematics anxiety as well as if there was a significant, statistical difference between the mathematics anxiety…

Many pre-service teachers suffer from mathematics anxiety, which hinders their mathematics learning. This can cause a deficit in their mathematics content knowledge, which must be addressed to become effective mathematics teachers. The present study explored whether positive expressive writing was better at mitigating pre-service teachers'…

Math anxiety is a problem in the United States which impacts 93% of the population including elementary teachers. Since elementary teachers can pass their math anxiety onto their students, it is important that they reduce their own math anxiety. If time were taken to develop the math identity of elementary school teachers, would it reduce math…

Debates about how best to support students' transition from school to university have re-emerged periodically since at least the 1970s. This paper focuses upon one aspect of this transition: how to develop the quantitative skills students acquire at school throughout the first year of their degree. We report on an attempt to inject pedagogic…

Mixed methods approaches are increasing advocated for researching complex problems in the social sciences, but they are not widely used by postgraduate students of public management. This article describes a study where qualitative and quantitative methods lecturers worked collaboratively to design and teach both methodology courses in an…

Emotions play an essential role in educational processes. Previous research has mainly dealt with achievement emotions which are experienced in specific situations such as exams or learning situations in mathematics (e.g. enjoyment or anxiety). Some achievement emotions are rather experienced in social contexts in mathematics and are closely…

For years, educators have been using "foldables" as a visual and/or kinesthetic approach to note taking within elementary school classrooms. The purpose of the study is to determine to what extent these foldables have on students' self-efficacy of grade level math concepts. We previously found that there were learning gaps in students'…

This study aimed to understand graduate-level Elementary Preservice Teachers' (EPST) mathematical dispositions before, during, and after a graduate elementary math methods course taught through a rehumanizing, ambitious and equitable math teaching framework. In this study, EPSTs' dispositions included four constructs: math anxiety, math teaching…

This three-article dissertation examined the implementation and impact of corequisite mathematics courses at four North Carolina community colleges located in urban areas. The first article was a multiple case study that examined student and instructor experiences to determine the characteristics of corequisite courses that students and…

Comparing health risks that include ratios of integers (e.g., 12 in 1,000) is challenging. We tested whether a worked-example intervention with number-line visual displays improved adults' risk-comparison accuracy, whether pretest confidence moderated learning, and which individual differences related to accuracy. Replicating prior work, U.S.…

The purpose of this meta-analysis was to examine the effects of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) interventions as a clinic-based treatment on students' mathematics anxiety level. A total of 7 studies containing 14 effect sizes were selected for inclusion in the present meta-analysis. Results indicated that the overall effect size was moderate to…

Increasing evidence suggests that success in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields is not only dependent upon one's actual STEM-relevant abilities but also upon one's STEM-relevant attitudes--in particular, math and spatial attitudes. Here, we examine whether simply mentioning the math or spatial relevance of a task affects…