PSYCH 133F - Beilock et al. 2010 (Teachers’ Math Anxiety and Girls’ Achievement)

Teacher math anxiety

The level of worry or fear teachers feel when dealing with math content

Student math achievement

Performance on standardized math tests at the beginning and end of the school year

Gender ability beliefs

Childrens ideas about whether boys or girls are better at math or reading

Stereotype endorsement

Agreeing that boys are good at math and girls are good at reading

Sample

The study followed 17 1st and 2nd-grade female teachers and 117 students across one school year

Teacher anxiety measure

Teachers completed a standard math anxiety rating scale early in the school year

Student achievement measure

Students took standardized math tests at the start and end of the year to assess math achievement

Gender belief measure

Students were asked to draw a picture of someone who is good at math to infer gender ability beliefs

Research question: teacher anxiety effect

Does female teachers math anxiety predict elementary students math achievement?

Research question: gender specificity

Is the relation between teacher math anxiety and math achievement different for girls versus boys?

Research question: mechanism

Do gender ability beliefs explain how teacher math anxiety affects girls math achievement?

Hypothesis: anxious teachers lower achievement

Classrooms with more math anxious teachers will show lower math achievement overall

Hypothesis: girls only effect

Teacher math anxiety will predict lower math achievement only for girls and not for boys

Hypothesis: stereotype mediation

The relation between teacher math anxiety and girls achievement will be mediated by girls endorsement of traditional gender stereotypes

Result: no beginning relation

At the beginning of the year, teacher math anxiety was unrelated to student math scores and unrelated to gender ability beliefs

Result: teacher anxiety harms girls

By the end of the year, higher teacher math anxiety predicted lower math achievement for girls

Result: no effect for boys

Teacher math anxiety did not significantly predict math achievement for boys

Result: anxiety and stereotypes

Higher teacher math anxiety predicted stronger endorsement of gender stereotypes among girls at the end of the year

Result: stereotypes and achievement

Girls who endorsed stereotypes that boys are better at math had lower math scores than girls who did not endorse them and lower scores than all boys

Result: mediation pattern

When gender ability beliefs were added to the model the direct link between teacher math anxiety and girls achievement became non significant

Result: teacher effect via beliefs

Findings suggest math anxious teachers influence girls math achievement mainly by shaping girls gendered beliefs about who is good at math

Result: no stereotype effect for boys

Teacher math anxiety did not predict stereotype endorsement or achievement for boys

Why we care: early gender gaps

Results show that gender gaps in math achievement can emerge as early as first and second grade

Why we care: teacher training

Findings highlight the need to address math anxiety in elementary teachers during teacher preparation and professional development

Why we care: stereotype challenge

Study supports interventions that explicitly challenge math gender stereotypes for young children

Why we care: classroom climate

Work shows that teachers emotional attitudes toward math can shape both beliefs and performance in their students