Date of Award
2004
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Fischler School of Education and Human Services
Advisor
Joseph A. Klein
Committee Member
Linda Gaughan
Committee Member
Maryellen Maher
Keywords
adult students, anxiety, college dropouts, confidentiality, correlation coefficient, data analysis, effect size, empirical research, fear, learning difficulties, mathematics anxiety, mathematics education, mathematics instruction, mathematics performance, mathematics scores, pooled standard deviation, questionnaire, random sample, research participants, sampling frame, Spearman rank correlation coefficient, student performance, survey research, voluntary participation
Abstract
The goal of this research is to persuade math instructors that there may be an inherent flaw in how math is taught in traditional settings, and there is a need to revise the delivery of math in the adult learning environment. This new approach should emphasize equally the content and the need for alleviating the fear and anxiety adult students experience in a math class. However, before such an application can be put in place, it is imperative that the presence of fear/anxiety factor in math class and its influence in overall performance of a student be established by empirical data which was the purpose for this research. This report includes the evaluation criteria, a detailed plan including the questionnaire, the sampling frame, data analysis, results, discussions, and recommendations stemming from this research.
In this analysis the relationship between fear and anxiety and student performance in math is examined. In this study, it was proposed that a random sample of college students be surveyed for their self-disclosed fear and anxiety. Each student was then ranked in terms of his or her fear/anxiety factor. Each student’s final grade was then correlated with his or her overall performance in the math class by using the Spearman rank correlation coefficient. The significance of the rank correlation coefficient was observed, which indicates the link between fear/anxiety (F/A) and the student’s overall performance in the math class. The effect size was found to be 4, indicating that the difference between the high performer (students with low F/A) and the low performer (students with high F/A) relative to the pooled standard deviation (SD) is 400%. This means the estimated difference in the overall math score between the low F/A and high F/A group is 400% relative to the combined standard deviation. This is an extreme example in the sense that two extreme groups were used to compute this coefficient. A moderate estimate obtained by allowing diffusion of the samples showed that the effect size is 1.70, which indicates that the minimum effect on the overall math score associated with fear anxiety is 170% relative to the pooled standard deviation.
The research required a strict confidentiality of each research participant (student) who was recruited for the study on a completely voluntary basis. Each respondent’s identity is protected and the questionnaire was anonymous. There were no consequences for their participation or for choice of specific answers in the survey questionnaire, which also contained no personal information.