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Peer Tutoring Effects on Students’ Mathematics Anxiety: A Middle School Experience

In this research the effects of reciprocal peer tutoring on students’ mathematics anxiety levels were examined. A pretest posttest with control group design was used at a public middle school in Spain. A total of 420 students in 7th, 8th, and 9th grades participated in the study, of which 215 were f...

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Autores principales: Moliner, Lidón, Alegre, Francisco
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7403438/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32848996
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01610
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author Moliner, Lidón
Alegre, Francisco
author_facet Moliner, Lidón
Alegre, Francisco
author_sort Moliner, Lidón
collection PubMed
description In this research the effects of reciprocal peer tutoring on students’ mathematics anxiety levels were examined. A pretest posttest with control group design was used at a public middle school in Spain. A total of 420 students in 7th, 8th, and 9th grades participated in the study, of which 215 were female and 205 were male. Students were randomly assigned and equally distributed by course grade (140 in each course grade) and experimental condition (210 in the experimental group and 210 in the control group). Quantitative data were gathered using the Mathematics Anxiety Scale developed by Chiu and Henry (1990). Qualitative information was gathered during eight focus group sessions that were held with students. Two main factors were analyzed using the quantitative and qualitative information: mathematics learning anxiety and mathematics evaluation anxiety. Results were analyzed by gender and course grade. Statistically significant improvements were reported for both male and female students in the experimental group and for each course grade for both factors. No statistically significant differences were reported for students in the control group in any case. A moderate effect size was reported for mathematics evaluation anxiety (Hedge’s g = 0.42), and a large effect size was reported for mathematics learning anxiety (Hedge’s g = 0.84). Information obtained from the focus groups was consistent with the reported quantitative results. The main conclusion is that peer tutoring may be very beneficial for reducing middle school students’ mathematics anxiety, regardless of their gender or grade.
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spelling pubmed-74034382020-08-25 Peer Tutoring Effects on Students’ Mathematics Anxiety: A Middle School Experience Moliner, Lidón Alegre, Francisco Front Psychol Psychology In this research the effects of reciprocal peer tutoring on students’ mathematics anxiety levels were examined. A pretest posttest with control group design was used at a public middle school in Spain. A total of 420 students in 7th, 8th, and 9th grades participated in the study, of which 215 were female and 205 were male. Students were randomly assigned and equally distributed by course grade (140 in each course grade) and experimental condition (210 in the experimental group and 210 in the control group). Quantitative data were gathered using the Mathematics Anxiety Scale developed by Chiu and Henry (1990). Qualitative information was gathered during eight focus group sessions that were held with students. Two main factors were analyzed using the quantitative and qualitative information: mathematics learning anxiety and mathematics evaluation anxiety. Results were analyzed by gender and course grade. Statistically significant improvements were reported for both male and female students in the experimental group and for each course grade for both factors. No statistically significant differences were reported for students in the control group in any case. A moderate effect size was reported for mathematics evaluation anxiety (Hedge’s g = 0.42), and a large effect size was reported for mathematics learning anxiety (Hedge’s g = 0.84). Information obtained from the focus groups was consistent with the reported quantitative results. The main conclusion is that peer tutoring may be very beneficial for reducing middle school students’ mathematics anxiety, regardless of their gender or grade. Frontiers Media S.A. 2020-07-29 /pmc/articles/PMC7403438/ /pubmed/32848996 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01610 Text en Copyright © 2020 Moliner and Alegre. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Moliner, Lidón
Alegre, Francisco
Peer Tutoring Effects on Students’ Mathematics Anxiety: A Middle School Experience
title Peer Tutoring Effects on Students’ Mathematics Anxiety: A Middle School Experience
title_full Peer Tutoring Effects on Students’ Mathematics Anxiety: A Middle School Experience
title_fullStr Peer Tutoring Effects on Students’ Mathematics Anxiety: A Middle School Experience
title_full_unstemmed Peer Tutoring Effects on Students’ Mathematics Anxiety: A Middle School Experience
title_short Peer Tutoring Effects on Students’ Mathematics Anxiety: A Middle School Experience
title_sort peer tutoring effects on students’ mathematics anxiety: a middle school experience
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7403438/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32848996
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01610
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