Running Head: ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Math Anxiety is Real: Annotated Bibliography
By: Amanda Leger
Elementary Math Methods
Dr. Shaunda Wood

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abstract
Math anxiety interferes with the manipulation of numbers and solving math problems in academic and real-life situations. The articles in the bibliography all look at how math anxiety affects the learning of children. The articles look at both the teachers and the children exhibiting math anxiety. The results all find that teacher’s math anxiety effect their confidence in teaching the subject which then can be transferred to the students. If the students encounter a poor experience in math, then they may develop math anxiety, which will then affect the rest of their lives. It is important for teachers
(especially at the elementary level) to teach with confidence and present the material in an engaging and non-threatening way so that their students have a positive experience with math.
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ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY 3
1. Bower, B. (2001). Math fears subtract from memory, learning. Science News, 156 (26).
405. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3981545
Summary:
This article discusses a study that was conducted at Cleveland State
University by Mark H. Ashcraft and Elizabeth P. Kirk. This study looked at the memory of people and how it was affected by math anxiety. This study found that math anxious people have difficulty holding in the new information coming in. This is because the anxiety is affecting the working memory and using up all the resources in that area of the brain.
The psychologists conducting this research also found that people who are high in math anxiety enroll in less math courses and received lower grades.
Implications to teaching:
The information presented in this article is important for teaching because it helps us understand math anxiety a little more. It shows us why students that have math anxiety perform worse and have a hard time learning anything new in math. By knowing the effects of math anxiety it helps a teacher plan their math block in order to address the students. Teacher will now be able to teach math in a way that is less intimidating and more accepting of the students who may take longer to understand certain concepts. It is important to start early and give students a positive experience with math so that math anxiety does not develop.

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2. Beilock, S. L., Gunderson, E. A., Ramirez, G., Levine, S. C., Smith, E. E. (2010).
Female teachers’ math anxiety affects girls’ math achievement. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 107 (5),
1863. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40536499.
1860-
4
Summary:
This article outlines the effects of math anxious female teachers on the success of their students (particularly their female students). This study assessed student’s math achievement in the first 3 months of their school year and then the last 2 months of their school year.
This study found that by the end of the school year, the higher the teacher’s math anxiety, the lower the female students’ but not the boys’ achievement. This is possible because at such a young age children look up to people in authority and tend to mirror their behaviours. Children mirror same-sex attitudes more because they may think they are gender appropriate.
Implications to Teaching:
The finding in this article is very valuable to teachers. It shows us that students are very impressionable and that they are capable of noting where our strong and not so strong points are. This affects how our students learn and how we teach them. We need to be cautious with our teaching and become knowledgeable in the content that we are teaching. We, as teachers, need to become confident in the math material and work to

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY eliminate math anxiety.
3. Haciomeroglu, G. (2012). Elementary pre-service teachers’ mathematics anxiety and mathematics teaching anxiety. and Learning.
International Journal for Mathematics Teaching
256-266. Retrieved from http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/journal/haciomeroglu.pdf.
Summary:
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This article discussed how teachers with math anxiety transfer their negative feelings about math to their students unintentionally. This study focused on pre-service teachers specifically and found that teaching math anxiety came from a variety of things such as, past negative experiences and inappropriate teaching practices. This study found that elementary pre-service teachers had a low-level of teaching math anxiety. This finding is inconsistent with findings in other studies. The researchers believe that their finding was different than other studies because of the pre-service teacher’s mathematical background. The researcher also believed that the involvement in math methods courses and in their practicum affected pre-service teachers and they math teaching anxiety. The teachers in this study had low-level teaching anxiety because of their past experiences in math.
Implications to Teaching:
This study is relevant to teaching because it shows us that if you have

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY efficient and involved mathematical methods courses in education
6 programs, then teachers will emerge with low-level math teaching anxiety.
Relating this back to second article in this bibliography, if you have high- level math teaching anxiety or math anxiety in general, then your students will notice and it will affect their learning and anxieties in math. Children will model your behaviours and attitudes and therefore math anxiety expressed from the teacher will affect the student’s learning and attitudes.
4. Ramirez, G., Gunderson, E. A., Levine, S. C., & Beilock, S. L. (2013). Math anxiety, working memory, and math achievement in early elementary school. Journal of
Cognition and Development, 14 (2).
187-202.
Summary:
This article discussed how there have been many experiments or data collections on people with math anxiety in middle school and college students. Many research does not include students lower than grade 4. In this study however, Ramirez et al. (2013) look at grades one and two students. They found that there is a potential of math anxiety in earlier grades in which would then affect them later on in life. The authors suggest that early math anxiety produces a snowball effect and would therefore result in increased anxiety and avoidance of math later in their lives.
Implications to Teaching:

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This study is relevant to teaching because of the results found. This is especially important for lower elementary teachers to keep in mind. One poor experience in math can lead to math anxiety and have a snowball effect. We want our students to grow and succeed so we must take this information and present mathematical concepts in an engaging way. We need to ensure that students do not fear mathematics, but enjoy it.
5. Jameson, M. M. (2013). Contextual factors related to math anxiety in second-grade children. The Journal of Experimental Education, 82 (4). 518-536. Retrieved from: http://www.tandfonline.com.proxy.hil.unb.ca/doi/pdf/10.1080/00220973.2013.81
3367
Summary:
This research focuses on children in the second grade and the development of math anxiety. The author looked at the factors that may contribute to math anxiety in children. The result that the author found was that the strongest predictor of math anxiety in children was math self-concept.
Self-concept is defined as a person’s perception of him or herself. Other factors such as parental math anxiety did not show as a predictor of math anxiety in children in grade two. Math anxiety may be brought upon by
“the perception-performance cycle” (Jameson, 2013) and this can include a threatening event that activates anxiety.
Implications to Teaching:

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This study shows educators that they must look at the way they are teaching mathematical concepts. This article tells us that an event or experience can effect a child’s perception of math. This perception could easily be positive if we teach it properly. We do not want to give children poor experiences in math because that will then bring on fear and a negative perception of math and their own abilities in math. With poor self-concept, then the study will experience math anxiety in their lives.
6. Bursal, M. and Paznokas, L. (2006). Mathematics anxiety and preservice elementary teachers’ confidence to teach mathematics and science.
School Science and
Mathematics, 106(4). 173-180.
Summary:
This study measured preservice teachers and their confidence in teaching mathematics. The study looked at if math anxiety had an effect on their ability to teach the subject. In the study they found that preservice teachers who had low math anxiety had much more confidence in teaching math. Preservice teachers with high math anxiety on the other hand showed very little confidence in teaching math to students. The results also show that feelings about math play a very large role in mathematics education and also in science.
Implications to Teaching:
This research is relevant to teaching because it touches on attitudes toward math. If a teacher has high math anxiety, then they feel less confident in teaching the subject. This is not a good thing because children will be

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY able to pick up on this. If a teacher does not have confidence in the
9 subject they are teaching, then the students become unengaged and bored.
This may also produce a poor experience of mathematics (or science) to the children and they may develop math anxiety themselves. It’s essential that an educator know they content and express confidence when teaching it to their students.