Math anxiety and contemplative practices in post-secondary contexts
department or school: Education, Faculty of
department or school: Education, School of (Okanagan)
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCO
creator: Shayer, Leslie Pauline
issued: 2020-04-21T17:17:17Z
issued: 2020
related degree: Master of Arts - MA
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Over fifty years ago, it was recognized that certain individuals became anxious when engaging in the practice of mathematics. Known as âmath anxietyâ, research indicates that: 1. Math anxiety affects math performance. The greater the anxiety, the lower the score in the math-related course. 2. Math anxiety leads to math avoidance. Students with math anxiety deny themselves a future in math-related careers, simply by avoiding subjects and jobs which use or include mathematics. This study examined the impact of introducing contemplative practices to post-secondary students taking mandatory first year math courses. Using a case study, the goal was to investigate whether contemplative practices decreased math anxiety. The evidence-based contemplative practices were practiced over one semester, during math courses and as part of the participantsâ personal practice. The triangulation of field notes, observations, a focus group discussion, and the semi-structured interviews identified the sources of self-perceived math anxiety and investigated the use of contemplative practices as viable interventions to reduce math anxiety. Results indicated that, within this local and place-based context, contemplative practices can be used by first-year math students to alleviate math anxiety and to support future coursework in mathematics or STEM-related fields to attain greater satisfaction and success in their lives.
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/74080
note: MATH ANXIETY AND CONTEMPLATIVE PRACTICES IN POST-SECONDARY CONTEXTS by Leslie Pauline Shayer M.Math., University of Waterloo, 1998 B.Sc., University of Guelph, 1996 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE COLLEGE OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Education) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Okanagan) April 2020 © Leslie P. Shayer, 2020 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the College of Graduate Studies for acceptance, a thesis/dissertation entitled: MATH ANXIETY AND CONTEMPLATIVE PRACTICES IN POST-SECONDARY CONTEXTS submitted by Leslie Pauline Shayer in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts in Education. Dr. Karen Ragoonaden, Okanagan School of Education Supervisor Dr. Wayne Broughton, Department of Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics and Statistics Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Wendy Klassen, Okanagan School of Education Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Javad Tavakoli, Department of Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics and Statistics University Examiner Click or tap here to enter text. iii Abstract Over fifty years ago, it was recognized that certain individuals became anxious when engaging in the practice of mathematics. Known as âmath anxietyâ, research indicates that: 1. Math anxiety affects math performance. The greater the anxiety, the lower the score in the math-related course. 2. Math anxiety leads to math avoidance. Students with math anxiety deny themselves a future in math-related careers, simply by avoiding subjects and jobs which use or include mathematics. This study examined the impact of introducing contemplative practices to post-secondary students taking mandatory first year math courses. Using a case study, the goal was to investigate whether contemplative practices decreased math anxiety. The evidence-based contemplative practices were practiced over one semester, during math courses and as part of the participantsâ…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2020-05
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0389907
language: eng
degree discipline: Education
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/74080