Abstract
Teaching efficacy, teaching anxiety, and teaching knowledge are crucial factors in effective teaching. This study investigated the mediating role of mathematics teaching efficacy (MTE) in the relationship between pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and mathematics teaching anxiety (MTA) for pre-service mathematics teachers. The participants were 463 volunteer pre-service teachers who completed a questionnaire package that included the MTE Scale, the MTA Scale, and the PCK Scale. The theoretical model was tested using structural equation modeling and a bootstrapping procedure. It was revealed that MTE has a partial mediating role in the relationship between PCK and MTA for pre-service teachers. The findings indicated that a high level of PCK increases pre-service teachers’ MTE, which decreases their MTA. Although PCK predicts MTE that in turn predicts MTA, more longitudinal and experimental studies are needed to better understand this sequence.
Highlights
Educational theorists, researchers, and mathematicians have become increasingly interested in exploring the indicators of mathematics teaching anxiety (MTA)
This study is conducted to reveal the network of relationships between MTA, pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), and mathematics teaching efficacy (MTE)
When the goodness of fit indices of the partial mediator model were examined, all values were at an acceptable level—χ2(24, N = 463) = 91.45, p < .001; Comparative fit index (CFI) = .97, normed fit index (NFI) = .96, goodness of fit index (GFI) = .96, Tucker–Lewis index (TLI) = .95, SRMR = .05, root mean square error approximation (RMSEA) =.07, Akaike information criterion (AIC) = 133.45, expected cross validation index (ECVI) =
Summary
Educational theorists, researchers, and mathematicians have become increasingly interested in exploring the indicators of mathematics teaching anxiety (MTA). After examining the relevant literature, several studies were found about the relationship between MTA of pre-service teachers and their thinking styles (Altundal, 2013), learning styles (Peker, 2009), mathematics anxiety (Brown, Westenskow, & Moyer-Packenham, 2011; Haciomeroglu, 2014; Peker & Ertekin, 2011), problem-solving strategies (Peker, 2009), mathematics self-efficacy (Ural, 2015), beliefs. In the studies that use a structural equation model, teachers’ efficacy for mathematics teaching was a predictor of MTA (Unlu, Ertekin, & Dilmac, 2017) They stated that a negative linear relationship between MTA and MTE was found. As a result of path analysis, pre-service teachers’ MTA was found as an important predictor of their efficacy It was suggested in a previous study that MTA of preservice teachers should decrease to increase their MTE.
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