Mathematics anxiety and attitudes towards mathematics in adult developmental learners : an exploratory examination of the relationship between mathematics anxiety, attitudes towards mathematics, and successful adult developmental learners.

According to Complete College America (2015), as many as 53.6% of learners may need developmental courses as they enter college or university programs, most commonly mathematics, and only 17.1% of these learners complete the developmental courses. Why are so many learners entering college underprepared and why do so few actually complete developmental coursework? Perhaps one of the contributing factors for low completion rates is mathematics anxiety. The purpose of this exploratory, correlational study was to examine the relationship between mathematics anxiety and successful adult developmental learners. In this study, 83 participants from a community college in central Texas took the revised Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale developed by Alexander & Martray (1989) and the Mathematics Attitudes Scale developed by Aiken (1963) during week 16 of the spring semester. A questionnaire about strategies used during the semester was given the same week. Implications for higher education and further research will be discussed.