The Relationship between Pre-Service Primary School Teachers' Mathematics Teaching Anxiety and Their Beliefs about Teaching and Learning Mathematics

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between pre-service primary school teachers' mathematics teaching anxiety and their beliefs about teaching and learning mathematics. There were a total of 250 pre-service primary school teachers involved in this study. Of the total, 202 were female and 48 were male pre-service primary school teachers. In the collection of the data, the researchers employed two types of instruments: the Mathematics Teaching Anxiety Scale (MATAS) and the Mathematics Related Beliefs Scale (MRBS). MATAS, which was developed by Peker (2006), was used to identify the pre-service teachers' anxiety about teaching mathematics. MATAS is a five-point Liker-type scale with 23 positive and negative items. MRBS, which was developed by Kayan, Haser and Işıksal Bostan (2013), was used to identify their beliefs about teaching and learning mathematics. MRBS is a five-point Liker-type scale with 26 items. The correlation analysis statistics was performed to identify the relationship between pre-service primary school teachers’ mathematics teaching anxiety and their beliefs about teaching and learning mathematics. The study revealed that there were a significant, negative relations between pre-service primary school teachers' mathematics teaching anxiety and their beliefs about teaching and learning mathematics (r=-.428; p<0.01).