ERIC Number: EJ1368880
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2023-Mar
Pages: 11
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1863-9690
EISSN: EISSN-1863-9704
Studying While Anxious: Mathematics Anxiety and the Avoidance of Solving Practice Problems during Exam Preparation in College Calculus
ZDM: Mathematics Education, v55 n2 p359-369 Mar 2023
Students who experience mathematics anxiety have long been suggested to engage in avoidance behaviors that negatively impact their mathematics performance. However, little is known about how these avoidance behaviors manifest for highly anxious students within the context of a mathematics course. Since the use of effortful study strategies has been shown to be an important predictor of students' academic outcomes, we investigated whether highly mathematics-anxious college students would be less likely to utilize such strategies during exam preparation compared to their less-anxious peers. To measure this, we asked college students (N = 72) enrolled in introductory Calculus to complete a battery of anxiety-related surveys and to retrospectively report how they studied for the final exam in their Calculus course. Using theories of achievement emotion as well as recent research showing a relation between mathematics anxiety and students' planned exam preparation behavior, we hypothesized that students experiencing mathematics anxiety would retrospectively report less engagement with effortful study strategies during exam preparation compared to their less-anxious peers. In line with our hypothesis, we found that solving practice problems was viewed by students as being one of the most effortful ways to prepare for a mathematics examination, and that mathematics anxiety was negatively associated with the proportion of study time students allocated to solving practice problems during exam preparation. These findings highlight the significant relation between mathematics anxiety and students' self-regulated exam preparation behaviors, marking it as an important topic to consider when investigating ways to improve the mathematics performance of highly mathematics-anxious individuals.
Descriptors: College Students, Mathematics Anxiety, Calculus, Tests, Test Wiseness, Study Habits, Student Behavior, Student Motivation, Academic Achievement
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Science Foundation (NSF); Institute of Education Sciences (ED)
Authoring Institution: N/A
IES Funded: Yes
Grant or Contract Numbers: DGE1144082; DGE1746045; R305C050076