Mathematics anxiety and the first year university introductory Calculus course

• Main Author: Stevens, Pierre
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/9784

Mathematics departments experience large dropout rates among first-year students. Attempts have been made to remedy this attrition by focusing on curriculum reform and teaching-learning techniques. Less effort has gone into exploring the differences in values, beliefs, expectations and experiences of teachers and students in a first year calculus course. The purpose of this study was to identify these differences in an effort to determine the circumstances under which teaching and learning takes place in the classroom. Identification of possible mismatches may provide a beneficial insight towards improving the pedagogy of mathematics education in the first year calculus classroom. To that extent, I conducted open-ended interviews and questionnaires with five faculty members and with five students. The research was carried out at the mathematics department of a Research University in Eastern Canada. Interpretative analysis of the data focused on three spheres of interest: beliefs about: the nature of mathematics, the pedagogy of mathematics education, and the aims of mathematics education and post-secondary university education. It was found that differing perspectives for the first two spheres contribute to mathematics anxiety among first year students. To address mathematics anxiety within the first-year introductory calculus course, the study suggests that there is a need to (I) develop a social constructivist theory of mathematics anxiety, (2) develop within the professional practice of post-secondary mathematics education an awareness of the role of communication, and (3) develop within post-secondary educational institutions an awareness of the benefit of nurturing research among instructors into their individual teaching practices. === Education, Faculty of === Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of === Graduate