Passolunghi Maria Chiara, De Vita Chiara, Pellizzoni Sandra
Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy.
Dev Sci. 2020 Nov;23(6):e12964. doi: 10.1111/desc.12964. Epub 2020 Mar 31.
Math anxiety (MA) is a specific feeling of tension generated by the manipulation of numerical stimuli in daily life and academic situations (Richardson & Suinn, 1972). This condition has significant repercussions on the individual's life at personal, social, and economic level. Literature on the topic of MA alleviation, however, is still scarce. This study aims at contributing to this field by addressing MA prevention in school-age children. We have developed two different training methods administered to two groups of fourth graders: (a) MA training focusing on identifying and copying with MA-related feelings (N = 76); and (b) Math strategy training focusing on supplementary exercises to enhance calculation strategies (N = 76). We also carried out a Control training involving a range of activities, such as reading comic strips, describing characters in the story, and combining text and images to obtain an original narrative text (N = 72). We evaluated the differential effects of these training methods on MA, general anxiety, and math achievement before and after the training. Results indicate that MA training contributes to a decrease in MA level, although it does not appear to affect math achievement; Math strategy training, on the other hand, results in far transfer on a reduction of MA level as well as near transfer on the improvement of math achievement. Data are discussed in terms of specific mechanisms underlying each type of training method, and with specific focus on the evaluation of educational and developmental opportunities linked to MA prevention and improvement of math abilities in school-age children.
数学焦虑（MA）是一种在日常生活和学术情境中对数字刺激进行操作时产生的特定紧张感（理查森和苏因，1972）。这种情况在个人、社会和经济层面上对个人生活有着重大影响。然而，关于减轻数学焦虑这一主题的文献仍然很少。本研究旨在通过解决学龄儿童的数学焦虑预防问题，为这一领域做出贡献。我们开发了两种不同的训练方法，分别应用于两组四年级学生：（a）专注于识别和应对与数学焦虑相关情绪的数学焦虑训练（N = 76）；（b）专注于通过补充练习来增强计算策略的数学策略训练（N = 76）。我们还进行了一次对照训练，包括一系列活动，如阅读连环漫画、描述故事中的人物，以及将文字和图像结合以获得原创叙事文本（N = 72）。我们在训练前后评估了这些训练方法对数学焦虑、一般焦虑和数学成绩的不同影响。结果表明，数学焦虑训练有助于降低数学焦虑水平，尽管它似乎并不影响数学成绩；另一方面，数学策略训练在降低数学焦虑水平方面产生了远迁移效应，在提高数学成绩方面产生了近迁移效应。我们根据每种训练方法背后的具体机制对数据进行了讨论，并特别关注与学龄儿童数学焦虑预防和数学能力提升相关的教育和发展机会的评估。
