09.18.06
Townsend, Moore, Tuck, and Wilton. Self Concept and Anxiety in University Students Studying Social Science Statistics
Townsend, M.A.R., Moore, D.W., Tuck, B.F., and Wilton, K.M. (1998). Self-concept and anxiety in university students studying social science statistics. Educational Psychology. 18(1): p 41-60.
In this study, students enrolled in an educational psychology course were tested before and after the course on measures of mathematics self-concept and math anxiety. Females tend to have a lower math self-concept than females and math self-concept tends to decrease in college. During the course there were many cooperative learning opportunities including labs. Math anxiety lessened as the course went on (though not significantly) though those with advanced math experiences had overall lower math anxiety than those who had less advanced math. Math self-concept was lower at the beginning than the end and lower in those with less advanced math than those with advanced math. Generally, student’s liked the cooperative atmosphere of the class and lab sessions and said that they learned something even if they did not decrease their anxiety.
I was previously a math tutor (mainly algebra) so I am familiar with the phenomena of math anxiety and especially math self-concept. I am also a TA for an intro educational psychology course. I find the use of cooperative learning in math/statistics interesting because its most traditionally thought of in social science or English contexts. I had some experience of cooperative learning in math/statistics though in high school (at one point we even did some assignments where we were graded as a group or pair). I find it interesting but not surprising that math anxiety and self-concept are so hard to change. Usually a student has a long experience of encountering math by the time they get to college and 1 class that shows them different evidence about their math skills probably won’t change their mind.
