Degree Date

9-2022

Document Type

Dissertation - NLU Access

Degree Name

Ed.D. Doctor of Education

Academic Discipline

Teaching and Learning

First Advisor

Dr. Stuart Carrier

Second Advisor

Dr. Elizabeth Minor

Abstract

This study examines the concepts of mathematical anxiety and mathematical resilience as manifested in the research literature and the lived experiences of students, college teachers, curriculum specialists, and lab instructors working in a state college’s developmental mathematics program. The researcher used an Emotional Intelligence in Learning Mathematics conceptual model focused on raising developmental mathematics students’ metacognitive comprehension of emotional intelligence and constructivist strategies applied to mathematical learning. The model used research literature findings suggesting an inverse relationship between math anxiety and math resilience, indicating that high math anxiety tends to be associated with low levels of math resilience, including student avoidance of math courses and tendencies toward low levels of course persistence. This project used student surveys presenting an adaptation of a Mathematics Anxiety Scale that measures mathematical anxiety and a Mathematical Resilience Scale as a constructed measure assessing responders’ assessments of the concepts of value, struggle, and growth in the context of learning developmental mathematics. The researcher applied statistical correlation analysis to measure direction and strength of three correlational relationships: mathematical anxiety with mathematical resilience (-0.425, moderate to strong negative correlation), emotional intelligence with mathematical anxiety (-0.310 moderate negative correlation) and emotional intelligence with math resilience (0.690, strong positive correlation). The study also used faculty and lab instructor protocol-driven interviews to code perception data on developmental mathematics curriculum with related social emotional topics and metacognition strategies. The study’s qualitative and quantitative data presented findings that student learning in developmental mathematics is impacted by students’ emotional intelligence, mathematical anxiety, and mathematical resilience. The conclusion recommended developmental mathematics program changes focused on a constructivist instructional approach with three recommended teaching strategies and accompanying professional development activities for faculty and lab instructors.

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