Young learners’ mathematics-related affect: A commentary on concepts, methods, and developmental trends

Abstract

This article is a commentary for the special issue on affect and mathematics in young children, written from the perspective of research on affect in mathematics education. The studies in this special issue focus on the individual learners’ affective traits and use primarily surveys as the method. The most common type of affect is emotions, but some studies do examine student beliefs and motivation. The analysis of concept definitions and operationalizations identified some inconsistencies between the different articles, especially with how they operationalize anxiety either as sadness, worry, or fear. The results of the studies provide evidence that young learners’ affect can be reliably measured and that there is a correlation between affect and achievement. This correlation is weaker than for older students and longitudinal data suggests that the causal direction is more likely from achievement to affect.