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CSU Professor Publishes Article on Mathematics Anxiety

CSU Professor Publishes Article on Mathematics Anxiety

Published July 16, 2018 in News

An article co-authored by Dr. Caroline Burleigh, professor of education at Clarks Summit University, was recently published by Taylor & Francis Online. The article, entitled “Exploring Early Childhood Preservice Teachers’ Mathematics Anxiety and Mathematics Efficacy Beliefs,” is also set to be printed in the International Teaching Education Journal in early 2019.

Due to the importance of the topic, Taylor and Francis printed it online first and plans to publish it in hard copy, so it will reach as many teacher educators as possible. This is one example of the emphasis CSU places on students being life-long learners.

Burleigh admits, “We emphasize to our students in the education program that teachers are lifelong learners and that it is their professional responsibility to keep learning, growing and contributing to the profession.”

She continues, “I believe this accomplishment is one way of modeling the importance of professional growth and scholarship for our students. The knowledge and skills I’ve gained throughout this process has helped improve my professional practice, and it is my hope that it will help other teacher educators as this information is published and shared for an international audience.”

Burleigh originally began conducting this research as a part of her dissertation work, and she continued to delve further into this important topic even after its completion. Throughout the process, she consulted expert Gina Gresham, Ph.D., associate professor of education at the University of Central Florida, and they decided to collaborate on the article. It was Gresham’s research that originally caught Dr. Burleigh’s attention and sparked her interest in the topic of math anxiety.

Based on her teaching experience with both elementary and college students, Burleigh has seen how prevalent math anxiety is at all levels. She said, “I’ve also seen the negative affects it can have on students’ learning and attitude towards math. Since teachers can often perpetuate math anxiety in the classroom by their attitudes and teaching methods, I was interested in understanding how to stop this cycle of math anxiety from continuing.” Through her research, she realized that the best way to combat math anxiety is to better prepare preservice teachers with more affective instructional methods, which would ultimately benefit their future students.

Of Burleigh’s accomplishment, CSU’s Dr. Ritchie Kelley says, “The main focus for professors here at CSU is teaching excellence, which Dr. Burleigh has proven. When professors are able to add new knowledge to their field of study, it is of benefit to the teacher education community and to themselves as researchers. We applaud Dr. Burleigh for her scholarship in the field of teacher education.”

Jessica Eddy is a Senior in CSU’s Communications-Writing program.

 

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