Math anxiety, self‐efficacy, and ability in British undergraduate nursing students

Abstract

Nurses need to be able to make drug calculations competently. In this study, involving 229 second year British nursing students, we explored the influence of mathematics anxiety, self-efficacy, and numerical ability on drug calculation ability and determined which factors would best predict this skill. Strong significant relationships (p < .001) existed between anxiety, self-efficacy, and ability. Students who failed the numerical and/or drug calculation ability tests were more anxious (p < .001) and less confident (p ≤ .002) in performing calculations than those who passed. Numerical ability made the strongest unique contribution in predicting drug calculation ability (beta = 0.50, p < .001) followed by drug calculation self-efficacy (beta = 0.16, p = .04). Early testing is recommended for basic numerical skills. Faculty are advised to refresh students' numerical skills before introducing drug calculations.

Paired peer learning through engineering education outreach

“…PSE is determined by innate capabilities (Declerck, Boone, & De Brabander, 2006), personal performance, and vicarious experience (Bandura, 1997), and can be influenced by experience of success, social modelling, and social persuasion (Bandura, 2004). Studies have indicated a link between PSE and teacher performance (Bates, Latham, and Kim 2011;Mcmullan, Jones, and Lea 2012). Consequently, teacher PSE in science and engineering may well influence children's attitudes, achievement, and motivations (McKinnon and Lamberts 2013), along with teachers' willingness to adopt innovative teaching strategies, time spent on teaching certain subjects, cultural competence, alternative conceptions of science, and classroom management beliefs (Flores and Day 2006).…”

“…Bandura (1997) suggests that PSE may be most amenable to change during early learning; indicating that teachers' beliefs and PSE are therefore potentially the most susceptible to influence and change during their initial training (Flores and Day 2006). Participating in this intervention early in a teaching career could be crucial in shaping dispositions towards STEM subjects and engineering careers in the future; with improved PSE and subject knowledge being linked to improved teacher performance (Bates, Latham, and Kim 2011;Mcmullan, Jones, and Lea 2012). Woolhouse and Cochrane (2009) suggest that teacher professional development which provides a sound grounding in subject specific knowledge but also actively engages individuals with their training benefits the teachers, their school children, and the schools, and changes teachers' attitudes towards their teaching.…”

Systemizing and the gender gap: examining academic achievement and perseverance in STEM

“…Several studies have shown that girls often are more anxious than boys in contexts that involve mathematical reasoning and that domainspecific anxiety has an important influence on the development of gender differences in math performance (Devine et al 2012;Goetz et al 2013). Previous studies have also found relations between mathematics anxiety and mathematics self-efficacy (Hoffman 2010;McMullan et al 2012). Moreover, the control-value theory of achievement emotions (Pekrun 2006) suggests that self-efficacy can mediate the impact of mathematics anxiety on achievement, which has been confirmed in several studies (Pekrun 2006).…”

Özel Yetenekli Öğrencilerin Matematik Öz-Yeterlik Kaynaklarının Matematik Kaygıları Üzerindeki Etkilerinin İncelenmesi

“…Birçok çalışmada matematik kaygısı ile öz-yeterlik inancı arasındaki ilişki ele alınmıştır (Cooper & Robinson, 1991;Hoffman, 2010;McMullan, Jones & Lea, 2012;Silk & Parrott, 2014). İlgili literatürde, genel olarak, öz-yeterlik inancı ile matematik kaygısı arasında negatif ilişkiler tespit edilmiş ve bu çalışmalar çoğunlukla ÖY olmayan öğrenciler üzerinde yürütülmüştür.…”

“…Moreover, selfefficacy beliefs, which these students have towards different tasks, may be higher than their peers' . In this study, unlike the studies in the literature (Hoffman, 2010;Cooper & Robinson, 1991;McMullan, Jones & Lea, 2012;Silk & Parrott, 2014), personal experiences, vicarious experiences, social persuasions and physiological states, which constitute self-efficacy, were taken into consideration and the relationship of each of these sources with mathematics anxiety and its effect on gifted students' mathematics anxiety was investigated. In this way, the relative order of significance of sources constituting the self-efficacy belief on gifted will be able to be identified.…”