Education Commons^™

Closing The Gender Gap: Increasing Confidence For Teaching Mathematics, Gavrielle Levine

NERA Conference Proceedings 2013

National emphasis on STEM education highlights the need to reduce mathematics anxiety and increase confidence for teaching mathematics among elementary level teachers. Most elementary school teachers are female, and are responsible for introducing foundational mathematics concepts and attitudes to developing minds. Female teachers’ higher levels of mathematics anxiety (when compared with male teachers) have detrimental effects on student learning. In this study, pre-service elementary teachers enrolled in mathematics education courses increased their confidence for teaching mathematics and reduced their mathematics anxiety. At the beginning of the course, males were more confident than were females. At the conclusion of the course, …