LS&T Study Blog

She/Her/Hers, I'm 26 and just started my combined MS/PhD track in Learning Sciences & Technologies (LS&T) as of Fall 2019. This Tumblr is a way for me to keep track of things that I found interesting while I was reading my articles for the week. Some weeks will have themes, others will be just whatever I feel like. If you have a LS&T Topic that you want to know more about, let me know and when I'm not busy I'll read up on it. :) I'm also a big statistics nerd, so I might post statistics stuff too. ^-^

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I listen to RelaxBeats on Twitch while I’m working. I like the background noise and it helps appease my interest-based nervous system.

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I’m really excited right now because I’ve been struggling since I joined this program to figure out how I could connect my work that I did in undergrad (which was all alcohol and addictions focused) to my new work which is all math education focused and I just made a conceptual leap because Eysenck apparently did a processing efficiency thing (that I’d never heard of) but also did an impulsivity thing (which I used extensively for a project during my undergrad) so maybe I can connect impulsivity to something in math education!! :D

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Running List of Things For Me To Investigate In The Future

Processing Efficiency Theory - Eysenck & Calvo, 1992 - “the uncomfortable feelings and worry associated with mathematics anxiety facilitates an intellectual paralysis, usurping precious working memory resources, and diverting attention which might otherwise be directed to task processing.” - Hoffman, 2010

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What Variables Do LS&T Researchers Look At

Measurable:

Problem Solving Accuracy (ACC) - Domain Competence ((Is this really accuracy or is this something else))

Working Memory Capacity (WMC) - Operation Span Task

Response Time (RT)

Efficiency (Ratio of accuracy to response time)

Flexibility

Self Report:

Demographics [things that describe you as a person like age, gender, sex, year in school, amount of school completed, race, ethnicity, number of a type of course completed, etc. These can be really general or super specific.]

Math Anxiety - Revised Math Anxiety Rating Scale (RMARS; Plake & Parker, 1982)

Self-Efficacy Beliefs [how confident you are in your ability to do something correctly] - [”Self-efficacy, the belief in one's ability to execute courses of action to achieve desired results (Bandura, 1986)“]

Metacognition [thinking about how you think and use of strategies] - State Metacognitive Inventory (SMI; O’Neil & Abedi, 1996)

I’m Not Sure If They Measure or Not But Might Be Neat:

Cognitive Load [how much effort you have to put in to do a task] or Perceived Cognitive Load [how much effort you think you have to put in to do a task]

Anxiety sensitivity [how much attention do you pay to how anxious you feel]

Impulsivity ((my thought being are more impulsive students worse at math because they don’t take the time to think through all of their options -- maybe also worse at metacognition))

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“For students, perhaps the greatest impact of mathematics anxiety relates to performance, as a strong negative correlation exists between mathematics anxiety and mathematics achievement (Ashcraft, 2002; Ashcraft & Kirk, 2001; Bandalos, Yates, & Thorndike-Christ, 1995; Cates & Rhymer, 2003; Ma & Xu, 2004; Miller & Bichsel, 2004).”

Source: “I think I can, but I’m afraid to try”: The role of self-efficacy beliefs and mathematics anxiety in mathematics problem-solving efficiency by Bobby Hoffman, 2010

My Thoughts: I’ve seen this in the students that I’ve tutored. They know how to do the work, but when it comes time to do the homework or take a test they freeze up and preform really poorly even though I know they know how to do the work. And then they see how bad they did and it drives their self-confidence down.

“Teachers and students with high mathematics anxiety, irrespective of ability, perceive they are less competent than individuals with lower mathematics anxiety (Ashcraft & Moore, 2009).”

Same source

My Thoughts: Even if they know how to do it, if they’re super anxious they’ll think they’re less competent than someone who doesn’t know how to do it but also doesn’t have anxiety about it. Story of my life; thanks Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria. x-x

“Self-perceptions may result in lower achievement outcomes and a predetermined attitude towards mathematics which can influence dispositions towards learning (Ferla, Valcke & Cai, 2009; Peterson, Fennema, Carpenter, & Loef, 1989). For example, Meece, Wigfield, and Eccles (1990) used structural equation modeling to test the relations among grades, perceptions of mathematics ability, and performance and value perceptions on mathematics anxiety. Performance expectations had the strongest direct effects on anxiety leading to the conclusion that “students’ interpretations of outcomes, not the outcomes themselves have the strongest effects on affective reactions” (p. 68).“

Same source

My Thoughts: This is like a viscous cycle -- you’re anxious that you won’t do well, so even though you know the material you don’t do as well which makes you think that you don’t know how to do it so the next time you go to do it you’ll be anxious because you didn’t do well EVEN THOUGH YOU KNOW THE MATERIAL.

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“Mathematics anxiety, the state of nervousness and discomfort brought upon by the presentation of mathematical problems, may impede mathematics performance irrespective of true ability (Aiken, 1970; Ashcraft, 2002, 2005; Ashcraft & Moore, 2009; Suinn & Edwards, 1982).”

Source: “I think I can, but I'm afraid to try”: The role of self-efficacy beliefs and mathematics anxiety in mathematics problem-solving efficiency by Bobby Hoffman, 2010

My Thoughts: So, if you have high levels of math anxiety, even if you know how to do the math correctly you’re going to do worse when they try to test you on your knowledge because you’re anxious about it.

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Topic of the Week: Math Anxiety