Date of Award
2-20-2018
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education (EdD)
Department
School of Education
First Advisor
Scot Headley, Ph.D
Second Advisor
Dane Joseph, Ph.D
Third Advisor
Susanna Thornhill, Ph.D
Abstract
Eighty second-grade students participated in a five day study to assess the potential benefits of utilizing expressive writing as a tool to reduce math anxiety and increase math achievement in highly math-anxious (HMA), primary-age children. This quasi-experimental design used a three-way mixed ANOVA to assess if students with high math anxiety, as measured on the MASYC-R survey, would show decreased levels of math anxiety after expressively writing about mathematical concerns for one week, compared to their peers who wrote expressively about a topic of choice.
At posttest, many students did show an increase in math achievement and a decrease in anxiety, however, results indicated no statistically significant three-way or two-way interaction between anxiety, time, and type of expressive writing within this study. Both the MASYC-R and the i-Ready computational assessment were found to be reliable measures for assessing math anxiety in young children and mathematical computation respectively. Utilization of a larger sample size, a longer time frame for the study, and incorporating a true control group are suggestions for future research in the area of expressive writing as a means to reduce math anxiety in young children.
Recommended Citation
Walter, Hope, "The Effect of Expressive Writing on Second-Grade Math Achievement and Math Anxiety" (2018). Doctor of Education (EdD). 106.
https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/edd/106