The Influence Of Mathematical Anxiety On The Learning Of Key Step Sample

Worked example learning is that students learn the examples and use the law on the basis of existing knowledge. There is a certain method to measure the effect of worked example learning.First of all, we should show the students the examples that implied certain problem solving rules.Then, let the students answer the related test questions to investigate whether the students have mastered the rules to solve related problems. There are many factors that influence worked example learning. It including the factor of the example characteristics(such as wrong examples,complete examples etc.) and individual(such as the existing knowledge, cognitive style, etc.).This study explores the effect of difficulty of key steps, math anxiety and working memory on worked example learning. Key steps belongs to the factor of example characteristics. Math anxiety and working memory belong to the factor of individual. Compared with non-key step,key step refers to the problem solving step that are difficult to understand, grasp and apply.This study includes two parts. A total of 240 junior students participate in the formal test.Part one explores the effect of mathematics anxiety and key step difficulty on worked example learning. A 2×2 between group design is applied. 120 junior students participate in this experiment. The level of math anxiety includes high math anxiety and low math anxiety. The difficulty of key step includes high difficulty and low difficulty. Part two explores the effect of working memory capacity and key step difficulty on worked example learning. A 2×2 between group design is applied. 120 junior students participate in this experiment. The level of working memory capacity includes high working memory capacity and low working memory capacity.The difficulty of key step includes high difficulty and low difficulty. Part two also measures the mathematics anxiety of the subjects and explores the intermadiation of working memory in the effect of math anxiety on worked example learning. In this study, the main content of worked example learning is the problem solving steps of quadratic equation with one unknown that students have not learned. Only the students who have passed the pretest can be the subjects of formal test. Passing the pretest means students can correctly answer the first 4 questions but can not correctly answer the last 2 questions. In other words, students have the basic knowledge of understanding and mastering the rule of solving quadratic equation with one unknown, but they have not learned how to solve it. Via statistics, the results are listed:Part 1 explores the effect of math anxiety and key step difficulty on math worked example learning of junior students. Results are:(1)The main effect of math anxiety is significant. The worked example learning achievements of high math anxiety students are significantly lower than the achievement ofstudents who have low math anxiety.(2)The main effect of key step difficulty is significant. The worked example learning achievements of students who have learned high difficulty are significantly lower than the achievement of students who have learned the low difficulty.(3)The interaction of math anxiety and key step difficulty is not significant.Part 2 explores the effect of working memory capacity and key step difficulty on worked example learning. And part two also explores the intermadiation of working memory in the effect of math anxiety on worked example learning. the results show that:(1)The main effect of working memory capacity is significant. The worked example learning achievements of students who have high working memory capacity are significantly higher than the achievement of students who have low working memory capacity.(2)The interaction of working memory capacity and key step difficulty is not significant.(3)The intermadication of working memory in the effect of math anxiety on worked example learning is significant.Conclusion: The worked example learning achievements of students who have high math anxiety are significantly lower than the achievements of students who have low math anxiety.When students learn the high difficult key steps of examples, their achievements will be much lower. If a student have high working memory capacity, their worked example learning achievement will be much higher. And working memory influences the effect of math anxiety on worked example learning.