Mathematics Anxiety and Beliefs of Turkish Pre-service Elementary Teachers

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between pre-service elementary teachers' mathematics teaching beliefs and mathematics anxiety. The participants of the study consist of 96 pre-service elementary teachers from a department of primary education in a state university in Turkey during the 2010-2011 spring term. Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale: Short Version and Beliefs about Teaching Mathematics Scale were used as the measuring instruments. The results reveal that pre-service elementary teachers' scores on beliefs about teaching mathematics were high whereas mathematics anxiety levels were low in general. The correlations between the sub-scales of the MARS-SV and child-centeredness beliefs are not significant at the 0.05 level. As a result, some recommendations concerning the situation and future research were made.