Author(s):
This project aims to provide a mathematics experience that is transformative for future educators and increase the number of elementary teachers who pass positive mathematics attitudes on to their students by helping pre-service teachers address mathematics anxiety and develop a growth mindset towards mathematics. The primary goal of this project is to establish a model math-intensive multi-requisite curriculum for developmental-level students majoring in Elementary Education that incorporates interventions to effectively improve persistence and completion, develop efficacy for learning and teaching mathematics, improve students’ mindsets toward mathematics, and addresses students’ mathematics anxiety. Along with this goal, however, this project aims to bolster the research base on pre-service teachers who are placed into remedial or developmental mathematics. Research regarding this population is limited, especially with respect to the affective traits of these students. Thus, this project will contribute to the existing research by providing data pertaining to mathematics efficacy levels, mathematics anxiety levels, and mindset tendencies for students majoring in Elementary Education at a primarily undergraduate, open-enrollment institution. The Central Research Questions are:How does a mathematics-intensive multi-requisite program that incorporates peer mentoring, affective-domain interventions, alternative assessment, and research-based pedagogical practices impact the following: 1. Student sequence completion and retention rates? 2. Students’ efficacy for learning and teaching mathematics? 3. Students’ mindset toward mathematics? 4. Students’ mathematics anxiety?The program has been successful implemented twice and the researchers have met the major project goals. After two iterations, 1. There was an 87.5% completion rate (of the required courses) compared to the control group at 22.7%. As for retention at the University, there is an 87.5% for one-year retention for both treatment groups. There is a 58.3% two-year retention rate for the first treatment group (Summer 2022). 2. All participants who took both the pre- and post-surveys showed an increase in mathematics self-efficacy as measured by two instruments (MSES – 100% and MTEBI – 93.6%). 3. The MST survey measured that 83% of the overall participants showed more malleable mindset toward mathematics and intelligence. 4. The abbreviated MARS indicated that 83% of participants who completed the program experienced a decrease in mathematics anxiety. Broader Impacts:Research indicates that students majoring in Elementary Education have higher-than-average levels of mathematics anxiety. Moreover, in-service teachers’ attitudes, including mathematics anxiety, influence students’ attitudes toward mathematics. In addition, while some teachers cite career dissatisfaction as a main reason for leaving the teaching profession, many former teachers feel constrained by inadequate content knowledge, specifically in mathematics. Therefore, this project anticipates the following broader impacts:1. to increase the number of elementary teachers who pass positive mathematics attitudes on to their students by helping pre-service teachers address their mathematics anxiety early on; and 2. to increase career satisfaction and retention by improving participants’ mathematics content knowledge and utilizing research-based best practices to improve attitudes toward mathematics.
Coauthors
Debra Ward, Utah Valley University, Orem, UT
