Chapter 4 Gender differences in comprehension skills used in mathematical problem-solving by math-anxious and non-math-anxious students

Abstract

There were no gender differences in Math Anxiety Rating Scale scores or overall comprehension scores. There was no difference between the math anxiety levels on overall comprehension scores. A repeated measures analysis on performance on the four different problem tasks indicated no significant between effect differences for anxiety or gender. There was a significant within-subject difference in comprehension scores for the four different types of problems. Comprehension of non-computational problems was statistically less difficult than comprehension of computational problems. A contrast between the computational, analytical and non-computational, visual problem tasks indicated that a significant interaction occurred between gender and anxiety level. Males that were of a moderate math anxiety level performed at an optimum level on computational, analytical problems. Females that were of a moderate math anxiety level performed at an optimum level on non-computational, visual problems. Females performed least well on computational, analytical problems. For them, performance decreased as the anxiety level increased.