Alleviating Maths Anxiety through Mentoring in an Emotional Intelligence Framework
Timothy PerkinsMathematics anxiety in pre-service primary teachers can be described as a debilitating lack of confidence in one’s ability both to use mathematics in a functional way and to teach mathematical content (Uusimaki & Nason, 2004). This problem is a widespread and much researched phenomenon (Haylock, 2001; Trujillo & Hadfield, 1999; Wilson, 2011). The use of mentoring to ameliorate maths anxiety has also been explored, although to a lesser extent (Beswick, Callingham, Ashman & McBain, 2011; Hudson & Hudson, 2007; Hudson & Peard, 2006). The proposed study will incorporate elements of Emotional Intelligence (Goleman, 1995; Salovey & Mayer, 1990) and Communities of Practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991) to create a mentoring system for pre-service teachers suffering from maths anxiety. Excellent mathematics teachers who rate highly on an emotional intelligence scale will mentor pre-service teachers in the hope of developing the pre-service teachers’ confidence to become enthusiastic and effective mathematics educators.