The Context of Mathematics Experience of Early Childhood and Elementary Teachers Who Dislike Mathematics

Abstract

A significant percentage of preservice early childhood and elementary teachers display math anxiety and other negative attitudes about mathematics (Kaasila, Hannula, & Laine, 2012).Teacher education courses, although designed in part to develop more positive attitudes toward mathematics (Lake & Kelly, 2014), do not always effect change in the teachers (Raymond, 1997), so that many practicing early childhood and elementary teachers still dislike, fear, or believe they are not good in mathematics (Ginsburg, Lee, & Boyd, 2008;Hadley & Dorward, 2011). Teachers' negative attitudes toward mathematics can produce similar attitudes in their students (Beilock, Gunderson, Ramirez, & Levine, 2010) and hamper mathematics learning (Lake & Kelly, 2014). In addition, negative beliefs about mathematics are related to decreased mathematics knowledge (Drageset, 2010;White, Way, Perry, & Southwell, 2006), which can result in preservice teachers having to take extra mathematics courses in college and/or struggling to pass their mathematics courses (Adelman, 2004;Bonham & Boylan, 2012; Mekonnen & Renznichenko, 2008). Also, teachers with weak mathematics knowledge are unable to provide robust mathematics education to their students (Moss, Bruce, & Bobis, 2016).In order to help teachers to develop more positive attitudes toward mathematics or to prevent negative attitudes from forming, it is important to understand how the attitudes are developed. Researchers have identified associations between attitudes toward mathematics and social conditions (Chmielewski, Dumont, & Trautwein, 2013;Manger & Eikeland, 1997) and between attitudes toward mathematics and teacher relationships (Simmers, 2011;Uusimaki & Nason, 2004). An open-ended exploration of teachers' mathematics experience may help confirm these associations, understand how they work in the process of the development of attitudes toward mathematics, and suggest new areas for research. EXPERIENCE OF TEACHERS WHO DISLIKE MATHEMATICS 2In this study, I explored the mathematics experience of early childhood and elementary preservice and in-service teachers who disliked mathematics at one point during high school or college. An understanding of the mathematics experience of this set of teachers could help mathematics instructors, curriculum designers, and policy makers at all levels to design and enact curriculum that effectively addresses attitudes related to mathematics. It could also help teachers to understand how their concepts of and their attitudes toward mathematics were developed and thus begin to explore how to best approach the mathematics education of their future students. This may also demonstrate to K-12 teachers how their attitudes toward and relationships with students influence those students' academic identity and achievement. Research QuestionThe research question that guided this study was: How do early childhood and elementary preservice and in-service teachers who dislike mathematics describe their mathematics experience? Theoretical FrameworkAccording to Kramp (20...