Demand for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professionals is on the rise worldwide. To effectively meet this demand, many governments and private organizations have revamped STEM education and promoted training to enhance math and science skills among students and workers. Education and training programs typically focus on increasing individuals’ math and science knowledge. However, data from laboratory studies and large-scale international assessments suggest that fear or apprehension about math, math anxiety, should also be considered when trying to increase math achievement and, in turn, STEM career success. This article reviews findings that shed light on antecedents of math anxiety, the bidirectional math anxiety-performance relation, underlying mechanisms, and promising routes to mitigating the negative relation between math anxiety and math performance.

This study examines between-country differences in the degree to which teachers’ working conditions, salaries, and societal evaluations about desirable job characteristics are associated with students’ teaching career expectations. Three-level hierarchical generalized linear models are employed to analyze cross-national data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Results reveal that teacher salaries and societal evaluations about the importance of job responsibility and respect are positively associated with teaching career expectations, while working hours are negatively associated with teaching career expectations. Analyses further reveal that the association between salaries and career expectations and societal evaluations and career expectations differ among students with different mathematics skills. We conclude by discussing policy initiatives that can encourage students with strong quantitative abilities to consider a career in teaching.

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