Test Anxiety, Mathematics Anxiety, and Teacher Comments: Relationships to Achievement in Mathematics Classes

Abstract

The study of the impact of high levels of anxiety on learners in educational settings has gained increasing attention over the past three decades. Research studies have shown that the factors which may provide either a facilitative or a debilitative effect on the teaching/learning process are multitudinous. There is a myriad of experimental research which has investigated achievement motivation, test anxiety, mathematics anxiety, teacher feedback, and academic achievement. These variables have been explored variously within the individual differences and instructional methodologies frameworks. In the past, learning has been viewed simply as a change in behavior; more recent definitions, however, have taken into consideration the existence of temporary behavioral changes and have stressed the importance of motivation as a precursor to learning. The theory of achievement motivation (Atkinson, 1964) provides the theoretical framework for the present study. Atkinson's theoretical formulations attempt to account for behavior when individuals know that their behavior will be evaluated by some standard of excellence and that the outcomes of their actions will be labeled either as or (pp. 240-241). Basic to this theory is the supposition that individuals who possess a strong success motive will approach an achievement situation with a positive accomplishment expectancy. On the other hand, individuals who possess a strong failure motive will have expectancies of failure, shame, and humiliation. For these individuals the achievement situation may elicit feelings of anxiety and fear of failure. The three variables investigated in the present study are: test anxiety, mathematics anxiety, and teacher feedback. Test anxiety theory, originally proposed by Mandler and S. Sarason (1952), assumes that two types of drives are evoked in the testing situation. The first type involves learned drives which are reduced by or response sequences which lead to completion of the task (p. 166). The second type is a learned anxiety drive which can elicit responses that either facilitate completion or interfere with it.