Anxiety In Mathematics

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INTRODUCTION
Mathematics is often viewed by students as one of the most abstract and conceptually difficult subjects. In spite of the important role of mathematics, students have been shown to have motivational difficulties when studying the subject.
Numerical anxiety is a feeling of tension, apprehension, or fear that interferes with mathematics performance like manipulation of numbers and the solving of mathematical problems in both everyday life and academic situations (Ashcraft & Faust, 1994). Anybody can have this and perhaps, most students have this. The causes of numerical anxiety fall within three major factors: dispositional, situational, and environmental (Baloglu & Kocak, 2006). The dispositional factors deal with psychological and …show more content…

For these reasons, additional research on the implications of numerical anxiety and the cognitive mechanisms associated with numerical anxiety is essential.
Numerical anxiety has been a prevalent concern among educators and others in our society for decades. Some students tend to be more anxious about the testing process and can often freeze up, others just cringe when they are confronted with any form of computational exercise, or others dread taking math classes which can occur in the elementary, high school, and even at the college levels. Research has shown relationships between numerical anxiety and achievement, between numerical anxiety and gender, and between numerical anxiety and age. A negative relationship between numerical anxiety and mathematics achievement has been found across all grade levels (Betz, 1978; Ma, 1999). While there is little doubt that there is a connection between numerical anxiety and poor mathematical performance, the direction and nature of this connection is less …show more content…

As a mathematics teacher, it has been observed that most students had negative view towards mathematics. Oftentimes one can see students uninterested about the subject and in turn they keep on complaining that mathematics is such a very difficult subject. Such attitude is often reflected during mathematics test wherein most students had either passing or below passing scores.
Students could still improve their mathematics performance. However, it is a must for every mathematics teacher to understand the reasons why most students are uninterested about mathematics. It is for this reason that the study was conducted.
This study focused on the relationship of numerical anxiety and mathematics performance. Specifically, the research aimed to determine the performance level of the students in mathematics and evaluate the anxiety level of the students according to according to age, gender, and programs/degree and determine whether significant relationships exist between the performance level of students and their level of

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