Effects of Early Childhood Teachers‘ Mathematics Anxiety on the Development of Childrens‘ Mathematical Competencies

Abstract

Children develop their mathematical competencies already during their early years. Therefore, effective learning environments provided by early childhood teachers are required. Early childhood teachers’ professional competence in mathematics is assumed to consist of different facets such as mathematical content knowledge and affective-motivational dispositions. Mathematics anxiety appears to be a common phenomenon amongst early childhood teachers and it is assumed that children educated by high math anxious teachers develop less mathematical competencies. To test this assumption, n = 48 early childhood teachers were tested regarding their mathematics anxiety and mathematical content knowledge and n = 362 corresponding children were tested twice within eight months regarding their mathematical competencies. Results indicate that children gain mathematical competencies over the eight-month period and that early childhood teachers’ knowledge and anxiety in mathematics are negatively related. However, no effects of teachers’ knowledge or anxiety on children’s mathematical development were found. The discussion considers methodological implications and emphasizes limitations with respect to differences between the preschool context and primary or secondary school contexts.