Mathematics anxiety, prior experience and confidence to teach mathematics among pre‐service education students

Poor performance in mathematics among students, at a variety of grade levels, has been attributed, in part, to mathematics anxiety (Bulmahn & Young, 1982 Bulmahn, BJ and Young, DM. (1982). On the transmission of mathematics anxiety. Arithmetic Teacher, 30(2): 55–57. [Google Scholar]; Kelly & Tomhave, 1985 Kelly, WP and Tomhave, WK. (1985). A study of math anxiety/math avoidance in preservice elementary teachers. Arithmetic Teacher, 32(5): 51–53. [Google Scholar]; Hadfield & McNeil, 1994 Hadfield, OD and McNeil, K. (1994). The relationship between Myers‐Briggs personality type and mathematics anxiety among preservice elementary teachers. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 21(1): 33–46. [Google Scholar]). Some investigators have related this phenomenon to gender effects (Cooper & Robinson, 1989 Cooper, SE and Robinson, D. (1989). The influence of gender and anxiety on mathematics performance. Journal of College Student Development, 30: 459–461. [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) mathematics self‐concept and test anxiety (Bandalos et al., 1995 Bandalos, DL, Yates, K and Thorndike‐Christ, T. (1995). Effects of math self‐concept, perceived self‐efficacy, and attributions for failure and success on test anxiety. Journal of Educational Psychology, 87(4): 611–623. [Google Scholar]), or poor test performance (Dew et al., 1984 Dew, KM, Galasi, JP and Galassi, MD. (1984). Math anxiety: relation with situational test anxiety, performance, physiological arousal, and math avoidance behaviour. Journal of Counselling Psychology, 31(4): 580–583. [Google Scholar]; Hembree, 1990 Hembree, R. (1990). The nature, effects, and relief of mathematics anxiety. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 21(1): 33–46. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Others, most notably Fiore (1999 Fiore, G. (1999). Math‐abused students: are we prepared to teach them?. Mathematics Teacher, 92(5): 403–406. [Google Scholar]) have attributed mathematics anxiety to what is referred to as math abuse or ‘any negative experience related to an individual’s doing mathematics’ (p. 403), particularly at the hands of adults such as parents and teachers. Limited research, however, was located that examined the relationship between pre‐service teacher education students’ experiences with formal mathematics instruction, and their future professional practice. Specifically, more needs to be known concerning the manner in which past experiences at school may have influenced both attitudes towards the subject as well as confidence in teaching it.