Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2009. / Open access. Includes bibliographical references (p. 118-126). Print copy also available.

The purpose of this study is to identify and analyze the relationships that exist between mathematics anxiety and nurse self-efficacy for mathematics, and the medication calculation performance of acute care nurses. This research used a quantitative correlational research design and involved a sample of 84 acute care nurses, LVNs and RNs, from a suburban private hospital. the participants filled out a Mathematics Anxiety Scale, a Nurse Self-Efficacy for Mathematics Scale and also completed a 20-item medication calculation test. Significant practical and statistical relationships were discovered between the variables utilizing multiple linear regression statistics and commonality analysis. As the Nurse’s Mathematics anxiety score increased the scores on the medication test decreased and the scores on nurse self-efficacy for mathematics scale also decreased. the demographic item of “Hours a nurse worked in one week” had the greatest significance. the more hours a nurse worked the lower their score was on the medication calculation test. This study agrees with others that nurses are not good at mathematics. This study also correlated that as the number of hours worked increased so did the medication calculations errors. and many nurses have a measurable level of anxiety about mathematics and dosage calculations and this may influence calculation ability. Suggestions for further research include refinement of instruments used in study, further differentiation of barriers to successful medication calculation performance, and testing of interventions used to teach, train and evaluate accurate medication administration in nurses.

"Wanting to help children to overcome any fears that might be foremost in them, the writer wishes to make a study of principles of teaching arithmetic and apply in the classroom certain of these principles in an effort to help children hurdle their great fear of arithmetic"--Introduction. / "August 1956." / Typescript. / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts." / Advisor: Mildred Swearingen, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 29-30).

The subject of digital animation witnessed the indispensable role of rigging in enabling movement and functionality, particularly within the context of game development. While animation principles (Thomas & Johnston, 1995) form the foundation of this discipline, rigging principles remain somewhat elusive, lacking the same fundamental status even to this day. As a highly technical subject, rigging can pose challenges to students who may not be aware of its intricate logic, yet still have to contend with it. This study presents an epistemic solution designed to elucidate the logic of rigging by emphasizing fundamental concepts over ready-made solutions. A full list of concepts was defined. To evaluate the effectiveness of this pedagogical approach, a workshop was held, focusing on experiential (Kolb, 2014), concept-based, teaching. It was compared with a control group whose workshop inherited the traditional pedagogical methodology. Afterwards, both groups were handed a convergent and a divergent test assignment (Guilford, 1968). Qualitative data was gathered through interviews, capturing student’s reflections and opinions on the respective workshops and test assignments. Results show a positive attitude towards both teaching methods. However, there was a particular alacrity among the students in the concept workshop, and they appreciated its pedagogical differences. Some students appeared to pick up on the epistemology and even expressed a realization of "why", and in doing so, stated the epistemic goal verbatim. Moreover, the traditional methodology entails less engagement in the convergent test assignment, further proving the potential for creative thinking (Runco, 2014) in the procedural test assignment. This demonstrated the potential benefit of this approach to education. This study is meant to start a discourse on effective pedagogical strategies in the context of rigging for digital animation, shedding light on the benefits of concept-based teaching. With more resources, it would have also focused on how the concepts affect game development directly.

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The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of training in self-regulated learning strategies on math anxiety and mathematics achievement among preservice teachers. The self-regulated learning strategies examined included personal time management, how to read your mathematics textbook for understanding, organizational skills, mathematics test taking and preparation, and the use of estimation in solving mathematics problems. Preservice elementary teachers with these improved learning skills may in turn become more successful teachers of mathematics. The effect of training in self-regulated learning as a treatment for math anxiety is not well established. However, self-regulated learning has been associated with improved mathematics and science problem solving (De Corte, Verschaffel, & Op't Eynde, 2000; Taylor & Corrigan, 2005; Zan, 2000). Increased use of self-regulated learning strategies has also been associated with a reduction in test anxiety (Hofer & Yu, 2003; Pintrich, 2000; Zeidner, 1998). Therefore, training in self-regulated learning strategies has the potential to reduce math anxiety among preservice elementary teachers. Elementary education majors in a course in mathematics concepts were given training in self-regulated learning strategies. A control group of similar students received the same classroom instruction by the same college professor. The professor did not participate in the training sessions that were led by this researcher. Both treatment and control groups were given pretests and posttests: the Abbreviated Mathematics Anxiety Scale - to measure math anxiety, the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire - to measure use of self-regulated learning strategies, and a Mathematics Achievement Test - to measure changes in content knowledge. The analyses used t-tests and correlations to compare the participants' pretest and posttest scores on the three scales. The use of self-regulated learning strategies was not shown to reduce math anxiety or improve achievement among the elementary education majors in this study. This result may have been due to various limitations, such as insufficient time for applying and following up on the training and an inability to fully embed the training into the course content. Future research should investigate if, given the proper conditions, self-regulated learning strategies will reduce math anxiety and improve the learning of mathematics concepts, leading to more effective mathematics teaching in the elementary classrooms. / CITE/Mathematics and Science Education

Recently, there has been a big surge of research and public interest in increasing the math capabilities and skills of American children. This paper serves as a literature review examining how the home environment, specifically parents, can help with that. This meta-analysis delves into the factors of maternal math talk, a parent’s own math anxiety, and the relationship between a parent and child in the context of a parent’s gender stereotypes and a parent’s perception on his or her child’s math abilities. Interventions, suggestions, and future implications are also discussed. This paper will hopefully bring needed awareness to parents about their roles in their child’s math development, abilities, and achievement.

The whole thesis has been the view on the level of the understanding to the number among children at first grade of the elementary school. The beginning part focuses on the general summary of the points related to the main subject. This means the developing of cognitive functions at the time when children start attending school, summary of the technical terms connected with mathematical abilities and describing the development of the mathematical abilities at the first grade. The research applies to the topics in the field of mathematical abilities, which are relatively new in the Czech Republic. I tried to describe the number sense among children at the first grade, their strategies during solving the tasks and also to describe the measure of their math anxiety. Another outcome is finding out the dependence of results of the powers of intellect test, number knowledge test and the math anxiety measure. My research was realized under the patronage of the research realized at the Australian University, Sydney. The conclusion of the thesis focuses on the suggestions how to support the children's mathematical abilities development before they start attending school. The translation of two research methods is also the partial result. Key words: number sense, math anxiety, mathematical abilities