BoardBuzz came across a recent article on Ars Technica about a new study which suggests that elementary school may be a breeding ground for math anxiety. Girls have long embraced the stereotype that they’re not supposed to be good at math. And according to the study they may be getting the idea from a surprising sourcetheir female elementary school teachers. Yes, the study claims that female elementary teachers who display a high level of anxiety about math transmitted that anxiety to their female students:
Teachers with high math anxiety were shown to have a significant effect on the math achievement and stereotypes of their female students. Girls with anxious teachers scored lower on math achievement tests at the end of the year than girls with more confident teachersthe more anxious the teacher, the more likely girls were to confirm the stereotype that girls have less math ability when they took the year-end tests. Girls who agreed with the stereotype all had lower math achievement scores than girls who did not agree, as well as lower scores than boys in general, who remained immune to their teachers’ influence.
BoardBuzz isn’t quite sure what to make of this study. However, it does appear that in early elementary school, where the teachers are almost all female, teachers’ math anxiety would carry consequences for girls’ math achievement by influencing girls’ beliefs about who is good at math. What do you think? Could female teachers be passing on their own math inadequacies to their female students?
I’m saddened that this comes as a surprise to you. Just a few hours spent in a classroom should be enough to observe anecdotal evidence of what this study has demonstrated empirically. Over and over, I’ve heard a teacher answer a request for help with math homework: “Oh, I was never good at math – ask Mr. Mitchell.” This is arithmetic, not non-euclidean geometry, people!
I’d like to see some leadership on this topic from school boards.
Anecdotal evidence could easily be disproved. It’s not hard to find female teachers who are good at math and science, too! But I would like to know who funded this study that says female teachers have math anxiety. Any info on? The continual push for the dominance of math and science seems to come at the expense of the arts and humanities in schools and has its origins in the time when the Russians launched Sputnik and the race for dominance of space (read militarization of space) was on. Of course students need to have math and science skills, but the humanities are valuable tools, as well, and teach critical thinking and (implied or related) ethics. Also, I am also suspicious of studies that attempt discredit teachers based on the female gender.