Anxiety toward mathematics teaching in spanish teacher education students

Abstract

In this paper we study the levels of anxiety towards mathematics teaching in a group of Spanish students for primary education teaching through the MATAS survey. The data collected in the survey is analyzed to determine if there are significant differences between the levels of anxiety when the sample is differentiated according to three criteria: if they have taken any previous mathematics subject, if they have any previous degree in education and if they have teaching experience in mathematics. As a result, it is obtained that most of the group of students present medium or high levels of anxiety towards the teaching of mathematics and that those who have no teaching experience or no previous degree present significantly higher mean levels of anxiety.