Mathematics anxiety, attitude and performance of high school students

Abstract

Mathematics education is of great concern by various sectors of every academic institution. Students are endeavored to learn and acquire necessary mathematical knowledge and skills vital to their lives. Being mathematically equipped helps them prepare to deal with their personal and professional lives ably. Such skill also steers them to be responsible and become productive citizens in the country. However, inevitable obstacles impede students' aim in achieving mathematical efficiency. These include the formation of mathematics anxiety and negative view towards mathematics brought about by various factors while studying the discipline. Evidently, previous researches showed that students perform on an average level so this becomes a disappointment for not being internationally competitive enough. This study investigated some individual factors affecting students such as mathematics anxiety and mathematics attitude and its relationship to the level of mathematics performance. The data gathered from this study aimed to provide concrete information on the causes of the appalling feelings of students to concerned individuals such as administrators, teachers, students and parents leading them to act and help each other mitigate and be able to eventually overcome these anxiety and negative attitude towards mathematics. These served also as additional data to conduct for further studies along the other causes of negative feelings toward mathematics and the other factors that would help the students improve their mathematics performance. The focal point of the study is to determine the causes and level of mathematics anxiety and mathematics attitudinal level and their correlation to mathematics performance of high school students of the Baguio City National High School. Specifically, this study sought to answer the following questions: 1. What are the causes of mathematics anxiety among the junior high school students? 2. What is the level of mathematics anxiety among the junior high school students? 3. What is the attitudinal level of the junior high school students in mathematics? 4. What is the level of mathematics performance of the junior high school students? 5. What is the relationship between the following variables: a. Level of mathematics anxiety and level of mathematics performance? b. Mathematics attitudinal level and level of mathematics performance? c. Level of mathematics anxiety and mathematics attitudinal level? Hypotheses: a. There is a significant relationship between the level of mathematics anxiety and the level of mathematics performance of the junior high school students. b. There is a significant relationship between the mathematics attitudinal level and the level of mathematics performance of the junior high school students. c. There is a significant relationship between the level of mathematics anxiety and the mathematics attitudinal level of the junior high school students. 6. What strategies can be proposed to mitigate the students' mathematics anxiety and negative mathematics attitude and action plan to improve the level of mathematics performance of the students? This study used the descriptive-correlation method to identify the causes of mathematics anxiety and to determine and correlate the level of mathematics performance of the junior students to factors such as mathematics anxiety and attitude towards mathematics. The respondents of this study were the junior high school students of the Baguio City National High School. The causes of mathematics anxiety were established using the questionnaire formulated by the researcher based on the research studies of Trujillo, Hadfield and McNeil. Moreover, the levels of mathematics anxiety and mathematics attitude were measured using the Revised Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale of Plake and Parker and Attitude towards Mathematics Inventory of Tapia, respectively. The level of mathematics performance of the students was determined from the computed average grade throughout the first and second grading periods. The weighted mean was used to determine the students' causes and level of mathematics anxiety, mathematics attitudinal level and level of mathematics performance. Furthermore, the Pearson-Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was used to determine the degree of relationship between each of the specified variables. The following were the major findings of this study: 1. The causes of mathematics anxiety that students agree with included the following: parental pressure to students to excel in mathematics; mathematics teachers' placing too much emphasis on memorizing mathematics formulae; minimum students' participation in mathematics classes; and the lack of students' self-confidence on their mathematics skills when working mathematics situation. 2. The level of mathematics anxiety among the BCNHS junior high school students was moderate. 3. The mathematics attitudinal level of the BCNHS junior high school students was positive. 4. The BCNHS junior high school students had an average level of mathematics performance. 5a There was a significant relationship between the students' level of mathematics anxiety and level of mathematics performance. The higher the level of mathematics anxiety, the lower the performance in mathematics and the lower the level of mathematics anxiety, the higher the performance in mathematics of the students. 5b There was a significant relationship between the students' mathematics attitudinal level and level of mathematics performance. Positive attitude in mathematics dictates high performance in mathematics while negative attitude in mathematics determines low performance in mathematics. 5c There was a significant relationship between the students' level of mathematics anxiety and mathematics attitudinal level. Students with higher level of mathematics anxiety have negative attitude while students with lower level of mathematics anxiety have positive attitude towards mathematics. From the foregoing findings and results of this research study, the following conclusions are formed: 1. The mathematics anxiety experienced by the BCNHS junior students stemmed mostly from external factors such as their parents and teachers rather than an internal factor which is their perceived lack of self-confidence. 2. The BCNHS junior students reveal that they are fairly anxious towards mathematics particularly when learning mathematical concepts and when having any mathematics evaluation. 3. The BCNHS junior students are optimistic in relation to mathematics expressing their high regard in the discipline with motivation and enjoyment feelings. 4. The BCNHS junior students have a good grasp and understanding of the essential mathematics concepts particularly in algebra and geometry. 5. The level of mathematics anxiety, mathematics attitudinal level and level of mathematics performance of the junior high school students significantly influence each other. In relation with the findings and conclusions of this research study, the following recommendations are suggested: 1. The parents, teachers and students should be hand in hand in addressing the identified causes of mathematics anxiety starting with their own actions and behaviors in connection to students' mathematics learning. 2. The moderate level of students' mathematics anxiety should be further minimized and be maintained to its minimum for the students to learn and perform mathematics efficiently through the guidance of teachers and parents. 3. The positive mathematics attitude of the junior students should be maintained and the self-confidence should be boosted by the help of their teachers and parents. 4. The Proposed Mathematics Performance Enhancement Plan (Appendix A) be taken into account by the BCNHS teachers for consideration to help improve the mathematics performance of the students. 5. The strategies to alleviate mathematics anxiety and negative attitude of the students be considered and adapted by the school administrator/principal, mathematics teacher, students and teachers (Appendix B). 6. Other Recommendations: a. Conduct further studies on the causes of mathematics anxiety and mathematics negative attitude to high school students at all year levels; the results can serve as bases to educators to come up with a comprehensive plan to mitigate those undesirable feelings. b. Conduct further studies to determine the degree of relationship between the level of mathematics performance and individual factors that can be influential to student's performance such as study habits, self-concept and preferred learning style. c. Conduct studies on the degree of relationship between the level of students' mathematics performance and teacher factors such as their mathematics anxiety, mathematics attitude and teaching style to determine its extent of influence.