Anxiety, Achievement, and Self-Regulated Learning in CueThink

Abstract

The effects of educational anxiety have been observed across multiple disciplines; anxiety negatively influences cognition, self-regulation, performance, and educational outcomes. However, there has been limited research on anxiety within the context of interactive learning environments. In the current research, we expand this by assessing whether and how trait-level anxiety (assessed as a pre- and post-measure in a year-long study) is related to students’ self-regulated learning strategies, behaviors, belief, and achievement in the context of an open-ended math problem-solving platform, called CueThink. Results indicate that anxiety is negatively related to key constructs involving math achievement. Altogether, our findings generally imply that students with higher anxiety may avoid interacting with their stressors, in this case, math content, effectively contributing to poorer outcomes. We discuss our findings within the context of research and pedagogical and system design.