title: Teachers' use of fear appeals in the mathematics classroom: worrying or motivating students?
abstract: AIM. This study examined whether teachers' use of fear appeals in the classroom, attempts to motivate students to perform well in high-stakes examinations by highlighting the educational, and/or occupational consequences of failure did indeed motivate students or whether it contributed to an increase in worry, anxiety, and fear of failure. SAMPLE. A total of 132 secondary school students. METHOD. Self-report data were collected for teachers' use of fear appeals, test anxiety, and achievement goals in the context of Mathematics at the end of Years 10 and 11, the final 2 years of compulsory schooling. RESULTS. The frequency with which teachers were reported to make fear appeals was unrelated to future test anxiety and achievement goals. When fear appeals were perceived to be threatening, however, they were related to an increase in the worry and tension components of test anxiety and increases in performance-avoidance and mastery-approach goals. CONCLUSION. Fear appeals appear to have competing positive and negative outcomes, resulting in both anxiety and a fear of failure, and a mastery-approach goal.
authors.affiliation: Department of Social and Psychological Sciences, Edge Hill University, UK. putwain@edgehill.ac.uk
authors.forename: David W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Putwain
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Symes
mesh_terms: D000124:Achievement; D000293:Adolescent; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D006040:Goals; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics / Q000193:education*; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009042:Motivation; D011340:Problem Solving; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013663:Teaching; D013732:Test Anxiety Scale / Q000706:statistics & numerical data