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Female teachers’ math anxiety affects girls’ math achievement

Sian L. Beilock, Elizabeth A. Gunderson, Gerardo Ramirez, and Susan C. Levine
PNAS February 2, 2010 107 (5) 1860-1863; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0910967107
Sian L. Beilock
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Elizabeth A. Gunderson
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Gerardo Ramirez
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Susan C. Levine
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  1. Edited* by Edward E. Smith, Columbia University, New York, NY, and approved December 17, 2009 (received for review September 23, 2009)

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Abstract

People’s fear and anxiety about doing math—over and above actual math ability—can be an impediment to their math achievement. We show that when the math-anxious individuals are female elementary school teachers, their math anxiety carries negative consequences for the math achievement of their female students. Early elementary school teachers in the United States are almost exclusively female (>90%), and we provide evidence that these female teachers’ anxieties relate to girls’ math achievement via girls’ beliefs about who is good at math. First- and second-grade female teachers completed measures of math anxiety. The math achievement of the students in these teachers’ classrooms was also assessed. There was no relation between a teacher’s math anxiety and her students’ math achievement at the beginning of the school year. By the school year’s end, however, the more anxious teachers were about math, the more likely girls (but not boys) were to endorse the commonly held stereotype that “boys are good at math, and girls are good at reading” and the lower these girls’ math achievement. Indeed, by the end of the school year, girls who endorsed this stereotype had significantly worse math achievement than girls who did not and than boys overall. In early elementary school, where the teachers are almost all female, teachers’ math anxiety carries consequences for girls’ math achievement by influencing girls’ beliefs about who is good at math.

  • education
  • mathematics
  • gender
  • stereotype
  • modeling

Footnotes

  • 1To whom correspondence should be addressed at: Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, 5848 South University Avenue, Chicago, IL 60607. E-mail: beilock{at}uchicago.edu.
  • Author contributions: S.L.B., E.A.G., G.R., and S.C.L. designed research; E.A.G. and G.R. performed research; S.L.B. and E.A.G. analyzed data; and S.L.B., E.A.G., G.R., and S.C.L. wrote the paper.

  • ↵*This Direct Submission article had a prearranged editor.

  • The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/0910967107/DCSupplemental.

    Freely available online through the PNAS open access option.

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    Female teachers’ math anxiety affects girls’ math achievement
    Sian L. Beilock, Elizabeth A. Gunderson, Gerardo Ramirez, Susan C. Levine
    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Feb 2010, 107 (5) 1860-1863; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0910967107

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    Female teachers’ math anxiety affects girls’ math achievement
    Sian L. Beilock, Elizabeth A. Gunderson, Gerardo Ramirez, Susan C. Levine
    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Feb 2010, 107 (5) 1860-1863; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0910967107
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