Teacher Education Students: Their Experience of Mathematics Anxiety, Self-Efficacy, and Teacher Professional Development

Abstract

This dissertation adds to the teacher education literature by exploring the experiences education students have of mathematics anxiety and self-efficacy for teaching and learning mathematics. Further, the utility of a specific in-service teacher professional development project, focused on improving rational number instruction, in pre-service education is evaluated, and the potential impact of professional development experiences on the anxieties and efficacy beliefs of students before they enter the teaching profession is explored. This study provides evidence of the predictive capacities of teacher efficacy models that incorporate student experiences and feelings of anxiety to better understand task choice. For example, findings indicate that self-efficacy for teaching mediates the relationship between mathematics teaching anxiety, experience, and mathematics subject area preference for teacher education students. Further, there are indications of the potential for teacher education coursework and in-service teacher professional development to decrease students' experience of mathematics teaching anxiety. Finally, evidence is provided that teacher professional development is not only perceived as useful to teacher educations students, but has potential as an intervention for teacher efficacy and anxiety for teaching. Given these findings, it makes sense to further evaluate the ways in which the strengths of pre-service coursework and in-service professional development can be leveraged to best prepare future teachers for their professional roles. Further research is also needed to longitudinally track experiences of anxiety and self-efficacy as students leave teacher education and enter the classroom as professionals.