Relationships Between and among Pre-service Mathematics Teachers’ Conceptions, Efficacy Beliefs and Anxiety

Abstract

The purpose of this research study was to examine the relationships between and among the conceptions of mathematics, mathematics teaching efficacy beliefs and mathematics anxiety of pre-service students with mathematics as their major subject (mathematics majors). Participants were 130 mathematics majors enrolled in a college of education in South West Nigeria. Internal consistency reliability coefficients from the administered self-report measure were acceptable for all scales. The analyzed results led to the following conclusions: (a) fragmented conceptions had positive associations with personal mathematics teaching efficacy, mathematics teaching outcome expectancy, mathematics evaluation anxiety and learning mathematics anxiety; (b) cohesive conceptions were positively associated with mathematics teaching efficacy; (c) positive associations were established between mathematics teaching efficacy and mathematics anxiety; (d) teaching efficacy and outcome expectancy were predictors of the concep...