Learning Mathematics: Obstacles Among Adult Women

Abstract

In a survey of adult women learners from a large technical junior college, a convenience sample responded with their perceptions of obstacles they faced in math education, indicating importance associated with each. Their responses indicated both origins and symptoms of “math anxiety,” a psychological condition common in such a population. Summarizing into seven categories of variables used in the survey, the author relates these finding to other literature and discusses the prospect of a larger funded study of math anxiety symptoms, their origins, and finally interventions. Junior-college interventions can address many symptoms but cannot address all origins.