Read more
The participants for the study were 60 students in Grade 5 from an elementary school in Central Texas. The participants were students in three math classes taught by the same teacher. Pretest data was collected using the Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale-Elementary (MARS-E) to measure math anxiety for elementary students. The independent variable was journal writing, and the dependent variable was math anxiety measured quantitatively by MARS-E. Two groups of students participated in two different types of journal writing interventions, affective response journals and dialogue journals. The third group, a control group, did not participate in journal writing. After a six week intervention, post-test data was collected using the MARS-E instrument. In order to answer the research questions, data was also disaggregated by gender and ethnicity.
About the author
Christie Bledsoe has 25 years of experience in education working with students in both secondary schools and higher education. She wholeheartedly believes that all learners can be successful in mathematics. While teaching at the university level, she continues to conduct research regarding math, science, technology, and teacher preparation.
