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The history of a teacher’s relief of his mathematics anxiety: the case of Diego

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Abstract

This investigation details the story of Diego, a novice Mexican teacher in secondary school. The story uses a life history approach and describes Diego’s process of overcoming mathematics anxiety. Diego experienced mathematics anxiety due to his lack of mathematical knowledge. Having detected this situation, the researchers coached him, focusing on his emotional and mathematical knowledge. After this coaching, Diego managed to overcome his mathematics anxiety and enjoyed teaching mathematics. Cases like Diego’s are common among novice teachers in Mexico; they are more likely to experience negative emotions despite doing their best for their students. His case can also show us a path for the relief of negative emotions. We suggest that coaching can be used as a strategy to relieve current and future teachers of their anxiety in programs for teacher training and in-service training.

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Acknowledgments

This paper is dedicated to Douglas McLeod for inspiring us to study Affect theory in Mathematics Education. We would like to thank Susan McLeod for helping us edit the manuscript. We appreciate the help of the teacher Diego to share his story and the help of Marisa Miranda in reviewing this manuscript. We are very grateful to David Wagner and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions for improving this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mathematics Education Research Facility, Autonomous University of Guerrero, Av. Javier Méndez Aponte, Fraccionamiento Servidor Agrario, 39070, Chilpancingo de los Bravo, Mexico

    María S. García González & Gustavo Martínez Sierra

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  1. María S. García González
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  2. Gustavo Martínez Sierra
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Correspondence to María S. García González.

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García González, M.S., Sierra, G.M. The history of a teacher’s relief of his mathematics anxiety: the case of Diego. Educ Stud Math 103, 273–291 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-020-09941-8

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