Observing the effects of hands-on activities on mathematics teacher confidence in geometry and statistics: A case study

Abstract

Middle school mathematics teachers often do not emphasise statistics and geometry in their lesson plans for a variety of reasons. However, these are integral topics in mathematics, and using direct lecture or hands-on activities may have different effects on teacher confidence when approaching these subjects. Using qualitative and quantitative methods, anxiety was found to improve with lecture-based workshops, while confidence and effectance was found to improve with manipulatives-based workshops. The results showed some surprising and unsurprising reasons for these conclusions.

Key words: teacher education; math anxiety; manipulatives; geometry; statistics