Lead supervisor:
Dr Charlotte Brookfield 
Start date: October 2020
Award: General
Subject Pathway:
Education
Thematic Cluster:
Language, Learning and Behaviour Cluster
Mathematics Anxiety
I am a part-time student and my research interests lie in the intersection of Education and Psychology. I am a Psychology graduate and have 18 years' primary classroom teaching experience. I have a Masters' degree in Education and another in Social Science Research Methods.
My research looks at Maths Anxiety (MA). MA is defined as, “feelings of tension and anxiety that interfere with the manipulation of numbers and the solving of mathematical problems in ordinary and academic situations” (Richardson and Suinn, 1972, p.551). It is much more than a dislike of mathematics. Individuals with high MA are not necessarily poor at mathematics, rather are prevented from demonstrating their mathematics abilities (Beilock, 2008, National Mathematics Advisory Panel, 2008). Mathematics-anxious people often avoid doing mathematics (Maloney et al., 2013).
I am developing a bilingual, psychometrically-robust, Wales-specific psychometric scale for measuring MA in primary school teachers, starting with conceptions of MA used by maths anxious teachers themselves. I will be establishing normative data to aid interpretation of scores.
Bibliography
Beilock, S.L., 2008. Math performance in stressful situations. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 17(5), pp.339-343.
Maloney, E.A., Schaeffer, M.W. & Beilock, S.L., 2013. Mathematics anxiety and stereotype threat: Shared mechanisms, negative consequences and promising interventions. Research in Mathematics Education, 15(2), pp.115-128.
National Mathematics Advisory Panel, 2008. (Online) Available at https://www2.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/mathpanel/report/final-report.pdf
Richardson, F., & Suinn, R., 1972. 'Mathematics anxiety rating scale: psychometric data', Journal Of Counselling Psychology, 19, pp. 551-554.