Many students begin higher education unprepared for college-level work in mathematics and must take non-credit developmental courses. Furthermore, many are "math-phobic" and avoid courses, majors and careers that involve quantitative work. Yet science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields are among the few job-growth…

Story problems either bring students to a screeching halt or send them into a frenzied search for numbers and operations. They cause greater anxiety, still, in English language learners. These problems are often the nemesis of many a math teacher. This author grappled with this challenge in the context of teaching a series of lessons on integers…

Groups of adolescent, math-anxious girls were either tutored in mathematics, tutored with self-instruction to reduce anxiety, or received no treatment. Tutoring and self-instruction resulted in increased ranked preferences for math, while math achievement increased more for the self-instruction group. (Author/GK)

A review and a course outline of a workshop conducted at Wayne General and Technical College, a branch of the University of Akron, during seven weeks of Spring Semester 1980 are presented. (MP)

Six features of a traditional mathematics curriculum that help establish math avoidance are discussed. Math avoidance is viewed as a natural reaction to so much of the experience of the student in situations euphemistically described as the learning of mathematics. (Author/MK)

Undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory biology course for nonmajors during the fall semester of 2007 were administered the Biology Attitude Scale (Russell and Hollander 1975), a constructed Mathematics Attitude Scale, and a portion of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (Pintrich and Smith 1993). Together, the…

The underrepresentation or absence of blacks in many science and engineering areas is of major concern. A strong mathematics background is essential to success in these fields, and mathematics anxiety is the greatest obstacle facing many black students. Seven common causes of mathematics anxiety among blacks are listed: low expectations and…

Presented is a general overview of mathematics anxiety, its definition, and techniques to measure it. Included are a brief discussion of gender-related issues and an analysis of research on effects of mathematics anxiety on elementary teachers. Contained are some intervention strategies and treatments, conclusions and implications for further…

In K-12 environments in the US, classroom tests are a central means by which teachers assess English Language Learner (ELL) content knowledge. Performance on routine classroom assessments is often a contributing criterion for school based decision-making and can affect decisions relating to academic tracking, retention, and access to academic…

The current short-term longitudinal study investigated the role of college students' identity development and motivational beliefs in predicting their chemistry achievement and intentions to leave science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) majors. We collected 4 waves of data over 1 semester from 363 diverse undergraduate STEM students…

This study investigated the statistical significance of student trust next to the well-tested constructs of personality and motivation to determine whether trust is a significant predictor of course achievement in college math courses. Participants were 175 students who were taking undergraduate math courses in an urban public university. The…

Introduction: The present study investigated the theoretical Stereotyping Threat-susceptibility groups proposed by Steele (1997) by using a latent class analysis. Method: 413 undergraduate students from the U.S and Colombia, majoring in various Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) and non-STEM disciplines completed a stereotype threat…

This study investigates the effect of attitudes toward mathematics-related coursework, previous mathematics coursework, student sex, spatial ability, and masculinity-feminity of interest pattern on statistics achievement. Subjects were 188 student volunteers from inferential statistics classes taught at a midwestern university during 1977-78.…

In this article, Gwen Taylor describes the West Kentucky Community and Technical College (WKCTC) groundbreaking program, "Accelerating Opportunity" (AO), which targeted students who are deficient in math, reading, or writing. The program uses the Washington State Board for Community & Technical Colleges' (2013) Integrated Basic…

This examination of women's mathematics anxiety and avoidance maintains that such an avoidance has its basis in the pervasive ideology that mathematics and science are men's domain. (CM)