Date of Award
2003
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Fischler Graduate School of Education and Human Services
Advisor
Alan K. Cohen
Committee Member
Stan A. Hannah
Committee Member
Barbara Packer
Keywords
academic success, career success, comprehensive intervention program, course evaluation, developmental problem solving, elementary education majors, higher education, intervention program evaluation, literature review, Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale, mathematics anxiety, mathematics anxiety intervention program, mathematics education, mean scores, Missouri Southern State College, MSSC, pilot program, posttest analysis, preservice elementary education teachers, program development, program implementation, program outcomes, research questions, standard deviation, teacher education, t-test, voluntary enrollment
Abstract
This applied dissertation was designed to develop a comprehensive mathematics anxiety intervention program for the preservice elementary education teachers at Missouri Southern State College (MSSC). The problem addressed was the need at MSSC for a mathematics anxiety intervention program to help hundreds of students experience increased academic and career success as a direct outcome of the intervention program.
The purpose of the project was to develop a comprehensive intervention program to prevent, reduce, or eliminate mathematics anxiety among the preservice elementary education teachers at MSSC. Three research questions provided the focus for the study: (1) How can mathematics anxiety be prevented, reduced, or eliminated in the preservice elementary education teacher’s cohort? (2) How could a mathematics anxiety intervention program be implemented? (3) How could a mathematics anxiety intervention program be evaluated?
The developmental problem-solving methodology was used in the study. The procedures used included (a) an extensive review of the literature, (b) the administration of the Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale (MARS) to determine if a need exists for a mathematics anxiety intervention program at MSSC, (c) the development of the criteria for the program, (d) the development of the comprehensive mathematics anxiety intervention program, (e) piloting the program, and (f) conducting pretest and post test data analysis assessing levels of mathematics anxiety at the beginning and the end of the pilot program to measure the success of the program.
The initial MARS evaluation determined that there was a need for an intervention program at MSSC. The data analysis revealed a mean of 221 with a standard deviation of 66.2 for a population of 112 preservice elementary education majors, showing a high level of math anxiety present. The program was piloted with 30 elementary education majors voluntarily enrolling in the class. The pretest and post test data analysis showed a significant decrease in mathematics anxiety with every student’s level of math anxiety decreasing by the end of the course. The pretest mean was 203.1 with a standard deviation of 60.05. The post test mean was 137.67 with a standard deviation of 31.57. The t-test value was 8.23, with a critical t-value of 2.045, with 29 degrees of freedom at the p < .05 significance level.
Recommendations were made to make the mathematics anxiety intervention program permanent at MSSC, to make the outcomes of the study known to the higher education community, and to conduct further research and study in mathematics anxiety.