Pre-Service Teacher's Fears of Teaching Mathematics

Pre-Service Teacher’s Fears of Teaching Mathematics
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Pre-Service Teacher’s Fears of Teaching Mathematics
In their research article, Alan Bates, Nancy Latham, and Jin-ah Kim give an in-depth scrutiny of the methodology, data analysis and results of a research that was conducted to understand early childhood pre-service teachers fears of teaching mathematics. This research involved eighty-nine early childhood pre-service teacher who consented to give information about their specific fears towards mathematics as well as to explain why they had those specific fears. This research’s results show that the early childhood pre-service teachers possessed a wide range of mathematical fears among them having a lack of confidence in their own ability, Lack of mathematical content knowledge, a lack of teaching methods, and an inability to engage the students they teach. The pre-service teacher’s responses as to why they had fears and what they feared were closely related.
The research article also provides the implications of the results of the research on teacher education programs. The information that Bates, Latham, and Kim provide is relevant to early childhood education in that teacher educators can understand the reasons why pre-service teachers have the fears they have and from this formulate a mitigation strategy. This information can also be used by teacher educators in devising their courses and instructional methods.
The purpose and rationale
The research was guided by 2 research questions; what are pre-service teachers’ greatest fears about teaching mathematics to their students? And why are pre-service teachers’ fearful of teaching mathematics? Therefore, the purpose of the research was to identify what fears the pre-service teachers have and why they have them. The research intended specifically understand what pre-service teachers feared in regard to their future mathematics instructions. The research focused on early childhood pre-service teachers since they report higher levels of mathematical anxiety as compared to other undergraduate majors. It was established that the higher levels of mathematics anxiety lead to lower levels of mathematics teaching efficacy.
The rationale for the research is to understand more about what early childhood pre-service teacher's mathematics anxiety and fears and establish why they have them. Lack of procedural and conceptual knowledge of the subject matter and earlier negative experiences with formal instruction are some of the reasons why pre-service teachers have mathematical fears and anxieties. Teacher's mathematics efficacy has a direct effect on their mathematics ability, anxiety, and has an impact on their classroom practices. The purpose of this research, therefore, was to understand the fears are there and why they manifest in the pre-service students in detail.
Participants
Eighty-nine early childhood pre-service teachers from a large preparation institution were the participants of the research. The preparation institution is a well-recognized institution that has a long history of teacher preparation having prepared the majority of teachers in the state. All the 89 participants were female and 81 of them were Whites, 5 Blacks/Non-Hispanics, 2 of them were Hispanics and one identified herself as other.48% of them were juniors while 52% were seniors. These participants were in the first or second semester of their junior year or the first semester of their senior year.
Methodology
As it is required, the researchers began the study by securing Institutional Review Board approval for research with human subjects. Recruitment was done by a graduate assistant who also secured consent and administered the survey because researchers were the participant’s teachers. The researchers wanted to eliminate any bias and so they were not present for the process and only accessed the data after the semester was complete. Another move that eliminated chances of bias was the consenting of all the students present at the time of recruitment. Researchers decided to use the following open-ended questions: 1What are your greatest fears about teaching math to students? Why do you think you are fearful about teaching math? What tools do you think will be effective in helping you teach math? What types of manipulatives do you think will be helpful in teaching math concepts such as addition and subtraction to young children? The research wanted participants to respond openly without time limits or size. The rationale of the research required that only questions one and to be analyzed.
Results
Research question required the identification of specific fears pre-service teachers had about teaching mathematics to students. 41% of the participants articulated fears related to mathematical teaching. 32% of the participants showed fear of their students’ ability and perceptions.24% of participants showed fears of their own mathematical ability or content knowledge. Two participants gave answers that were not included in the coding of data analysis while another reported no fears.
The second research question required participants to give reasons why they had those specific mathematics fears. Mathematical content fear had the highest percentage of 35% with 32% of participants identifying with mathematical teaching. Students a success rate fear was at 15% while ca...