1.

1 Introduction

Education is described by Kirk and Gallagher (1983: 34) as the mirror of the

society, showing its strengths, weaknesses, hopes, biases and key values of its culture.

Thus, education has a definite role to play in the development of people and countries.

Education plays a significant role in the development of people because people are the

wealth of any nation; therefore, people are viewed as a focus for development. It plays a

vital role in the development of the country because education is the source of growth of

any country. This may be one of the reasons why United Nations Educational Scientific

and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) (2001:9) declare education a vehicle for and

indicator of development.

Education and training play a vital role in assisting individuals and societies to

adjust to social, economic and cultural changes and promote the development of the

human capital essential for economic growth. Modern education, schooling in particular,

aims at imparting knowledge, skills and attitudes required by the young ones to become

functional in their respective societies. Schools are therefore intended to serve as agents

for developing individual citizens within a country (Pandey 1996 : 77). In essence,

schools are institutions where children are groomed to appreciate what the society in

which they live stands for and are equipped in order for them to contribute to the

advancement of their society.

Education is universally recognized as the most effective tool of bringing

desirable change towards the social and economic betterment and cultural transformation

of a society in the status of human being and the country as a whole. It broadens the

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mental horizon of the human being. In one hand, education develops the total personality

of the individual and on the other hand education contributes to the growth and

development of society. It is only through education that the moral ideas, spiritual values,

the aspiration of the nation and its cultural heritage are transformed from one generation

to another for preservation, purification and sublimation into higher culture. Humphrys,

Traxler et al. (1960) have very correctly remarked "our future material and cultural

welfare and progress, even our survival as a nation depends upon the wise use of abilities

and energies of our people."

The nation that fails to make a genuine assessment of his human energy available

in its bound to lag behind others in the era of great competition in the national and

international fields. An ideal system of education should enable individuals to know and

develop to the fullest their physical and intellectual potentialities and promote their

awareness of social and human values so that can develop a strong character and live

better lives and function as responsible members of society.

Education is the key to all processes of development especially human

development. Catalytic action of education in this complex and dynamic growth process

needs to be planned meticulously and executed with great sensibility.

Education is fundamental to all round development of human potential-material

and spiritual. It refines sensibility and perceptions that contribute to national cohesion, a

scientific temperament and independence of mind and spirit. Thus furthering goal of

socialism, secularism and democracy enshrined in our constitution. Education develop

manpower for different levels of economy and empower the poor masses to become self-

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reliant enough to participate in the process of national development. Education is thus an

instrument for developing an economically prosperous society and for ensuring equity

and social justice through enriching the knowledge.

In India, an attempt to take a holistic view was made in 1986. The NPE-1986

(Govt. of India, 1986) is a landmark in the history of Indian education. The NPE-1986

visualized education as a dynamic, cumulative, life long process providing diversity of

learning opportunities to all segments of the society. It envisaged improvement and

expansion of education in all sectors, elimination of disparities in access and stresses on

improvement in the quality and relevance of education at all levels. The NPE-1986 also

emphasized that education must play a positive and interventionist role in correcting

social and regional imbalances in empowering women.

Subjects like science and mathematics have found a significant place in the

curricula of primary and secondary school education. Mathematics has become a

substantial and integral part of an organized society. In today's world no one can live

without mathematics for a single day. The learning of mathematics is indispensable

because of its wide ranging applications in our life. The present society requires the use

of the skills such as estimating, problem solving, interpreting data, measuring, predicting

and applying mathematics in everyday life situations. The National Policy on Education

(NPE) 1986 has rightly visualized mathematics as the vehicle to train a child to think,

reason, analyze and articulate logically. Moreover, the national Curriculum Framework

for School Education (NCFSE) 2000 has reiterated that the study of mathematics

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contributes to the development of precision, rational and analytical thinking, reasoning

and positive attitude and aesthetic sense.

Mathematics has played a decisive role in building up our civilization. But in

doing so, it has also made itself essential for the existence and progress of modern world.

In modern world we have to be more and more exact, we make larger use of quantitative

terms. We have to be accurate to a split of second. All this requires large calculation and

minute mathematical understanding.

Mathematical thinking is important for all members of a modern society as a

habit of mind for its use in the work place, business and finance; and for personal

decisions making. Mathematics is fundamental to national prosperity in providing tools

for understanding science, engineering technology and economics. It is essential in

public decision making and for participation in the knowledge economy.

Mathematics equips pupils with uniquely powerful ways to describe, analyze and

change the world. It can stimulate moments of pleasure and wonder for all pupils when

they solve a problem for the first time, discover a more elegant solution or notice hidden

connections. Pupils who are functional in mathematics and financially capable are able to

think independently in applied and abstract ways and can reasons, solve problem and

assess risk.

Mathematics is a creative discipline; the language of mathematics is international.

The subject transcends cultural boundaries and its important is universally recognized.

Mathematics has developed over time as a means of solving problems and also for its

own sake.

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 In the present social set-up, mathematics is more important for the common man.

In this age of taxes, insurance premium savings and interests, rents and propaganda, a

person only with good mathematical background can be reasonably sure that he is getting

his due.

A little reflection will show what predominant role mathematics plays in our

everyday life and how it has become an indispensable factor for the progress of our

present day world. It is the pivot of all civilization. Each individual is required to

compute his or her income and balance, his family budget irrespective of having any

formal education of mathematics. This is the subject which undisputed forms the very

basis of entire world's commercial system. It is a contributory factor in the prosperity of

human race. There is no science, no art and no profession, where mathematics does not

held a key position. The accuracy and exactness of a science is determined to a major

extent by the amount of mathematics utilized in it. Even social sciences like economics,

psychology, geography etc. make abundant use of mathematics. The gigantic work of

construction of dams, bridges, building of ships, airplanes, bombs etc. are possible only

because of the quantitative science. Even in medical sciences mathematics is used to

measure the doses, the blood pressure, the rate of the pulse, the body temperature etc.

Most of the natural sciences and philosophy are to be studied on mathematical lines and

without the study of mathematics there would be no improvement in them.

Even nature also embraces mathematics completely. The sun rises and sets at

specified moment. The stars appear at fixed time. Mathematics runs in the veins of

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natural sciences like Physics and Astronomy. This subject is inextricably incorporated

with world and the natural phenomena.

Arithmetic is the language of commercial activity, algebra gives the idea of

functional dependence and generalization, geometry teaches logical thinking and natural

design. All these combine to produce a very valuable literature of interpretation, control

and progress. We understand the world better. Graphical representation of numbers is

becoming very common. Mathematics in home decoration designs, measurement and

construction in banking and business, in protection of life and property in painting and

art is playing a vital role.

A well grounded understanding of mathematics is an essential for everyday life as

for higher study in the fields of science and technology. Mathematics holds a unique

place in every society today. People accept the fact that mathematics is vital to the

continued growth of the nation, both for expanding internal advancement and

maintenance of leading role in the world community. Mathematics aids man in his

understanding of the world, he lives and in turn, modifies the world and his need as he

continues to develop. It has played a decisive role in building civilization of a nation.

Mathematics is an important component of school education in the modern

world. It is used in almost every phases of human life. A strong background in

mathematics is crucial for many career and job opportunities in today's increasingly

technological society. There can be no true schooling without mathematics.

One of the aims of teaching mathematics in schools is to inculcate the skills of

quantification of experiences around the learners towards this carrying out experiments

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with numbers and forms of geometry, framing hypotheses, verifying these with further

observations from inherent part of mathematics learning. Mathematics helps in the

process of decision making through its application to real life situations in familiar as

well as non familiar situations. It contributes in the development of precision, rational

and analytical thinking, reasoning, positive attitudes and aesthetic sense. Apart from

being a distinct area of learning, it helps enormously in the development of other

disciplines which involves analysis, reasoning and quantification of ideas. Study of

mathematics also provides ample opportunities for making conjectures, testing and

building arguments about their validity and also in asking new questions, understanding

of the basic structure of mathematics leads to a much better appreciation of the scope and

power of mathematics.

Let us find out the position of mathematics in our school curriculum in the last

two or three decades. Most of the boards of secondary education in India prescribed two

types of mathematics syllabuses for the students of 10-years schools, one being

elementary or general mathematics which was an additional mathematics course for the

student having special aptitude and interest in mathematics. The Central Board of

Secondary Education had of course two different syllabuses in mathematics one at A

level and other at B level. The student should choose any one of the two syllabuses. The

Central Board has dispensed with the dual syllabus from the examination year 1986 and

has prescribed only one syllabus irrespective of attitude, ability and aptitude of the

students.

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 So far as the new contents were concerned, the syllabuses were to an extent new

but in almost all the cases same methods of teaching were followed and same old

evaluation process was resorted to. The National Commission of Education

recommended some sort of general education for all children up to the age of 16+ with

mathematics as a compulsory subject. The recommendations which were put forward in

1966 were accepted by many of the state Governments in 1974. The Central Board of

Secondary Education introduced the new pattern from the examination year 1977.

The Government of India accepted the main recommendations of the Education

Commission (1964-66) in 1968. Subsequently, the Ministry of Education and Social

Welfare constituted an Experts Group in 1973 to develop the curriculum for the 10+2

pattern of education which after circulating an approach paper to teachers, educational

administrators and educationists produced a framework of the curriculum for the ten year

school in August 1975.

Mathematics remains an important today. Many life stages and skills require a

solid grape of mathematics from entering university to balancing a household budget

applying for a home loan or assessing a possible business opportunity. When children

eventually leave education and seek out a career, they will inevitable need to call upon

the mathematical skill and strategies they have learnt at school. They will soon realize

that many careers require a solid understanding of mathematics. The learning of

mathematics contributes to the development of precision, rational and analytical

thinking, reasoning, positive attitude and aesthetics sense. But children often feel

problem in learning mathematics and having negative attitude towards mathematics.

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They have a sense of stress and anxiety in learning mathematics. Mathematics anxiety

effects the performance and achievement of student in mathematics.

The world is becoming more and more competitive and quality of performance

has become the key factor for personal progress. Parents desire that their children climb

the ladder of performance to as high level as possible. The desire of a high level of

achievement put a lot of pressure and anxiety on students in mathematics. Student often

develop mathematical anxiety in schools about their mathematical abilities in certain

areas.

Mathematics anxiety is an intense emotional feeling of anxiety that people have

about their ability to understand and do mathematics. People who suffer from

mathematics anxiety feel that they are incapable of doing activities and classes that

involve mathematics. Some mathematics anxious people even have a fear of

mathematics; it's called mathematics phobia. The incidence of mathematics anxiety

among college students has risen significantly over the last decay. Many students have

even chosen their college major in the basis of how little mathematics is required for the

degree.

Mathematics anxiety has become so prevalent on college campus that many

schools have designed special counselling programs to help mathematics anxious

students. Mathematics anxiety is an emotional, rather than intellectual problem.

However, mathematics anxiety interferes with a person's ability to learn mathematics and

therefore results in an intellectual problem.

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 Mathematics anxiety is a feeling of tension and anxiety that interfere with the

manipulation of mathematical problem in varied situations in ordinary as well as

academic life (Richardson & Suinn, 1972). It can also be explained as a sense of

discomfort observed while working on mathematical problems (Hadfield & Trujillo,

1999; Ma, 2003) and is associated with fear and apprehension to specific mathematics

related situation (D'Ailly & Bergering, 1992). It is found among elementary school

students (Jackson & Leffinwell, 1999, Steele & Arth, 1998); high school students

(Hembree, 1990) and in college students (Tobias, 1990, Bitner et. al. 1994).

Mathematics anxiety often leads to avoidance of mathematics by those who

experience it. Often students who are anxious, bored and fearful towards mathematics or

who do not comprehend the importance of mathematics in professional and personal life

are the once most likely to avoid the study of mathematics. It cannot be stressed more

forcefully the fact that mathematics is truly the gateway to engineering, scientific,

technological fields. Mathematics anxiety in students has become a concern for our

Indian society. Evidence of student's poor attitude and high levels of anxiety towards

mathematics is abundant. In the midst of a technological era, declining mathematics

scores in 'Scholastic Aptitude Test' as well as poor mathematics scores had been

published in the third 'International mathematics and Science Study'. The other notable

consequences of mathematics anxiousness are the inability to do mathematics, the

decline in mathematics achievement, the avoidance of mathematics courses, the

limitation in selecting majors and future careers and the negative feeling of guilt and

shame (Betz, 1978; Donady & Tobias, 1977; Hendel, 1980; Rechardson & Suinn, 1972).

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 Hence, the professional and economic gains that will result from changing

mathematics anxiety into mathematics confidence cannot be overstated. Not only that the

psychological boost that comes with mathematics achievements is also regarded an

important for students and other alike (National Research Council, 1989).

The majority of research on mathematics anxiety has involved school students.

The first year of secondary school have also been identified as a key period in the

development of mathematics anxiety (Hembree, 1990).

Anxiety in mathematics has raised several important questions for educational

researchers. What factors promote anxiety in students? How far do the different factors

contribute towards anxiety? Therefore many factors have been hypothesized and

researched upon and researchers have come out with different results, at time,

complementing each other but at times contradicting each other.

A complete comprehensive picture of anxiety still seems to eluding the

researchers. The search therefore continues and educational researchers all over the

world are still seeking a breakthrough in elucidating this phenomenon. Therefore

research has come to our aid by looking into what variables promote mathematics

anxiety and what are the determinants to it.

Reserches have suggested that anxiety in mathematics in secondary schools is a

function of many interrelated variables like students abilities, attitude, perception, socio

economic values, parental education and occupation, family size, peer gourps, size of the

school, types of management, resources, salaries of the teachers and tuition fees and so

forth. Many of these variables are home and families related and thus are difficult to

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change and also out of control of the education. However, the school related variables

such as attitude, perceptions and knowledge of the role of mathematics achievement in

future career opportunities that be influencing and is easy to change by educational

interventions.

Norwood (1994) emphasized that mathematics anxiety did not appear to have

single cause, but was infact, the result of many different factors such as truancy, poor

coping skills, teacher attitude and emphasis on learning math through drill without

understandning. However some causes for mathematics anxiety are environmental

factors such as myth and attitude of teachers and parents and attitude of student;

intellectual factors such as learning styles and dyslexia; personality factors such as low

self-esteem, shyness, intimidation and persistence.

Another factors, which are widely touted as significant contributor for

mathematics anxiety is student’s gender, attitude, mathematics achievement, parental

education and types of school.

Student’s gender is significant factor for mathematics Anxiety. The study of

mathematics anxiety shows, there are gender differences in mathematics anxiety among

younger students, though it appears that during the elementary and junior high school

years, boys express slightly more positive affect about math than do girls (Aiken 1970).

During the high school and college years female students report more anxiety about math

than do male students (Betz, 1978; Bruch, 1981).

Numerous studies have shown that male achievement in mathematics is higher.

Due to the fact that gender differences do not appear until around puberty. Boys and girls

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have similar mathematics and science proficiency scores on tests at the age of 9, but a

gap begins to appear at around age 13, early findings showed that children (boys and

girls) did not differ in their mathematics performance during elementary school but that

differences began to appear in middle school and increased with time and schooling

(Fennema & Sherman 1978). Moreover, mathematics is often labeled as a masculine

ability as a result, girls often have low confidence in their mathematics capabilities.

These gender sterotypes can reinforce low confidence in girls and can cause mathematics

anxiety. However, a note of cautious has to be added while describing gender as a major

variable effecting mathematics anxiety. For example, Gierl and Bisanz (1995) found no

significant gender difference for mathematics anxiety, on the other hand Campbell and

Evans (1997) found that females exhibit more mathematics anxiety in secondary school

and in college. Jordan and nettles (1999),who analyzed data from the National

Educational Longitudinal study of 1988 (NELS), reported that girls had lowest scores

than boys on math in the 12th grade. Research has shown that females do not enjoy math

and often see it as having little relationship to their lives or their futhures (Fennema and

Sherman, 1978). Females display more mathematics anxiety than males in secondary

school and college (woodard, 2004).

The study was a longitudinal investigation of the relationship between

mathematics anxiety and mathematics achievement. A moderate but significant negative

correlation between the two has been observed by many researchers (Adams and

Holcomb, 1986,Betz, 1978; Suninn, Edie, Nicoletti and Spinelli, 1972, Wigfield and

Meece, 1988). This negative relationship also appears at the elementary and secondary

school levels (Chiu and Henry, 1990;Lee,1991 and 1992). A review of current research
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suggests that low achievers in mathematics frequently accompany the incidence of

mathematics anxiety. Ma (1999) found that the relationship between mathematics anxiety

and mathematics achievement is significant. It was also found that once mathematics

anxiety takes shape, its relationship with mathematics achievement is consistent across

grade levels. Stake and Amato (1995) and Hadfield et tal (1992) also reported similar

findings. A high level of anxiety is associated with a lower level of achievement (Harper,

1988).

The negative effects of mathematics anxiety on student’s achievement in

mathematics has intersted researchers for several years. Richardson and Woolfolk

(1980)discussed how certain features of math, such as its precision, logic and emphasis

on problem solving, make it particularly anxiety provoking for some individuals. Studies

have documented the negative effects of mathematics anxiety on math performance and

achievement (Richardon and Suinn, 1972). Several researchers also have proposed that

mathematics anxiety contributes to observed sex differences in mathematics achievement

and course enrollment patterns (e.g. Fennema, 1977;Fox,1975, Tobias and Wissbrod

1980,) Hembree (1990) reports an average correlation of 0.34 for school students,

concluding that mathematics anxiety seriously constrains performance in mathematical

tasks and that reduction in anxiety is consistently associated with improvement in

achievement.

However, it should be noted that the observation of Hensley (1987) uses multiple

regression and those of Hadfield and Maddux (1988) using analysis of variance did not

indicate a significant relationship between the two. Frary and Ling (1983) suggest that

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higher levels of mathematics anxiety are related to lower mathematics achievement

among university students.

Mathematics anxiety and students attitude towards the learning of mathematics

countinue to attract the attention of researches because of their association with students

learning and achievement in mathematics. If your attitude is positive towards

mathematics, you will most likely enjoy performing the task and you have low level of

anxiety. A negative attitude towards mathematics will cuases you to dislike the task and

you have high level of mathematics anxiety. Thus attitude, part of a student’s disposition,

influence the level of mathematics anxiety. Students who suffer mathematics anxiety

have accepted that they fail in any mathematics situation. Furthermore, the student

cannot cope with the frustration of not being able to keep up with the class and student’s

negative attitude forms a barrier preventing any further learning.

Attitude are inclinations and predispositions that guide an individual’s behavior

(Rubinstein,1986) and persuade to an action that can be evaluated as either positive or

negative (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975). Hadfield, Martin and Wooden (1992) found a

strong correlation between the variable of persistence and degree of mathematics anxiety,

thus concluding that a student's attitude may be a a more important factor than previously

thought. It has similarly been noted that more positive attitudes accompany lower levels

of anxiety and are conducive to increased gains in the future (Genshaft, 1982).

Student’s negative attitude towards mathematics can be attributed to both

personal and external factors. Mathematics attitude becomes anxiety if it begins to

determine success or failure despite the student’s ability. Students attitude towards

15
mathematics that are not necessarily positive even though they continue to study it.

These students see mathematics as services subject or something that must be endured to

further their careers (Walmsley, 2000).

Changing a student’s negative attitude towards mathematics an building

confidence will improve the student’s anxiety. Fiore (1999) referring to students who

have had very damaging mathematics related experiences states that with the

mathematics anxious student it is important to help the student realize that mathematics

anxiety is common and to reassure the student that he or she is not alone in his or her

feelings of insecurity. According to Bush (1991) attitudes and enthusiasm towards a

subject has greater impact on than instruction variables.

Overall, mathematics anxiety will be reduced due to positive attention that helps

build self-esteem and self-efficacy. Consequently, this reduction in mathematics anxiety

will change attitude towards mathematics.

Parents play a vital role in their children’s education. Students whose parents

were university educated performed about two thirds of a proficiency level higher than

those whose parents had no more than a high school education. Parents higher in

mathemathics, this reduces the level of anxiety in them but if the parents are uneducated,

they cannot help the students in their study and this effect mathemathics anxiety directly.

Thus parents play an import role in supporting their children and reducing their

mathemathics anxiety.

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 Educated parents supported their children’s course taking and career choices.

They can learnt the effect of mathematics anxiety in students and encourage them to

pursue challenging courses and careers.

Parents have the most influence on adolescent course-taking and career choices,

with the mother being the most influential of all this was the finding in a 2001 report in

the social psychology of education. Parental encouragement in math has been found to

significantly influence student’s learning experiences and attitude towards mathematics.

Infact, students grades in mathematics were higher when students perceived that their

parents were encouraging their effort in math.

Higher educated parents, aside from being actively involved in their children

education, they provide a home environment that can affect learning. Parents serve as a

model for learning determine the educational resources available in the home and hold

attitude and values towards education.

The average math scores of students whose parents had high school or less were

significantly lower than the average scores of students whose parents has college or

university. Thus there is a strong relationship between the educational level of the parents

and student performance in mathematics.

Dave and Dave (1971) investigated the relationship of parental education on cast with

the academic achievement . They found that higher percentages of rank holder belong to

homes with higher parental education where as a higher percentages of failed students

belong to those who have lower parental education. Bridge et al (1979), and Glasman

17
and Binyamin (1981) concluded that the achievement level of a student in mathematics is

directly proportional to the level of his parent’s education.

Another variable which comes up as a major influencing factor for mathematics

anxiety among student is the type of schools. India at present is on the fast track of

globalization. In the new millennium, we have already initiated second generation

changes in our economic policies. A shift from government sector to private sector is

gaining momentum day by day. So, in the field of education also, private sector seems to

flourish due to its quality as perceived by most of the parents. Geeta (1994) was

conducted Private unaided junior school were significantly more effective either than

Government and private aided junior schools.

Varghese (1994) found that schools managed by private sector show marginally

better performance than government schools. Duraisamy (1999) results indicate that

students from private unaided schools do significantly better than public school

counterports and private aided school students in language and mathematics. Coleman et

al (1982) provide strong evidence that there is, in vocabulary and math, higher

achievement for comparable students in catholic and other private schools than in public

schools. Veeragahvan and Bhatcharya, 1989, Murthy and Kulshreshtha 1999,

white,1992, Estalls et al, 1997, Goldhabar, 1996, Singh Satvir, 1996 provide in their

studies a strong evidence that there is in vocabulary and mathematics, higher

achievement for comparable students in private schools than in public schools.

The investigator is more convinced that students personal and institutional

factors (like gender, attitude, parental education, mathematics achievement and school

18
type) need no longer be neglected in research efforts directed towards a study of

correlates of mathematics anxiety. The reason is obvious, conceptually, they appear to

influence the mathematics anxiety but their influence has not yet been empirically

studied adequately. This being the reason, the investigator undertook the present study

which attempts to investigate relationship of their personal and institutional factors of

secondary school students with their mathematics anxiety.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

The problem selected for study reads as follows :

“Mathematics anxiety among secondary school students in relation to gender,

attitude, parental education, mathematics achievement and school type”

1.3 Independent and Dependent Variables

The independent variables are student's gender, attitude, parental education,

mathematics achievement and school type. The dependent variable is mathematics

anxiety.

1.4 Objectives of the Study

Every research study deals with the solution of some problems of human interest.

That is why the researcher has a definite purpose, he has certain specific aims and goals

to achieve through his research work. Such specific goals or purposes of research are

technically termed as objectives. Every research work must have some objectives to

achieve without which no research work can be conducted. The entire research process is

guided by objectives. Which have been explicitly and presently spelled out by the

19
investigator in advance ? The present study is aimed at achieving the following

objectives :

1. To compare the mathematics anxiety of secondary school students on gender

basis.

2. To study the relationship between attitude towards mathematics and mathematics

anxiety of secondary school students.

3. To study the impact of mathematics achievement on mathematics anxiety of

secondary school students.

4. To study the influence of parental education on mathematics anxiety of students.

5. To study the influence of parental occupation on mathematics anxiety of students.

6. To study the influence of school type on mathematics anxiety of students.

7. To study the impact of medium of instruction on mathematics anxiety of

secondary school students.

1.5 Hypotheses of the Study

In order to give proper directions to investigation, it was thought necessary to

formulate certain hypotheses which may be tested in this study. The investigator was

guided by the results of previous researches in their areas, theoretical view points

available in related literature and investigator's intuitive understanding and insight. For

the present study, the hypotheses have desirably to be stated in the null form. The reason

is obvious when they conceived as research hypothesis they are generally stated in the

20
form of statements but when they are conceived as statistical hypothesis usually they

take on the form of null hypothesis.

It is an admitted fact that the use of null hypothesis is unavoidable in case of

experimental research and desirable in case of other kinds of researches. The reason is

that there is no statistical method or technique, which can directly test the research

hypothesis. All statistical tests are tests of null hypotheses. Only, indirectly, by rejecting

or accepting the null hypothesis one arrives at the conclusion about the research

hypothesis.

The following null-hypotheses have been constructed for testing through the

study. The confidence interval set-up for the purpose of accepting or rejecting the

hypothesis in the study is 0.05 to 0.01 levels. The reason for fixing the rigorous limit is

discussed elsewhere. Common practice in this regard, is to set-up a range of 0.05 to 0.01

levels. The following hypotheses were established :

1. There is no significant difference in the mathematics anxiety of male and female

students.

2. There is no significant relationship between attitude towards mathematics and

mathematics anxiety of students.

3. There is no significant difference in the anxiety of the students having different

levels of achievement.

4. There is no significant difference among the different categories of father's

education and mathematics anxiety of students.

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5. There is no significant difference among the different categories of mother's

education and mathematics anxiety of students.

6. There is no significant difference among the different categories of father's

occupation and mathematics anxiety of students.

7. There is no significant difference among different types of schools and

mathematics anxiety of students.

8. There is no significant difference between medium of instruction and

mathematics anxiety of secondary school students.

1.6 Definition of the Key Terms

Some terms and concepts have been repeatedly used in this study. In view of the

unfortunate situation that terminology in behavioral sciences unlike that in physical

references has not yet attained a standardized form, it appears necessary that their

definitions as accepted for this study are given so that any term may not means different

things to different readers of the dissertations. It is obvious that the investigator has not

coined her own definitions, but has for each term selected the one from those given in

standard text books which was found to have best served the purposes of the present

study. In case of each term or concept the accepted definition is preceded by a brief

discussion of how it is viewed by different authors.

1.6.1 Mathematics Anxiety

The term mathematics anxiety here refers the feeling of fear, worry and dislike of

the students towards mathematics as measured by specially designed scale. Mathematics

22
anxiety for the present study shall mean the total score obtained by the sample groups on

the mathematics anxiety scale.

1.6.2 Secondary Education

Secondary Education which serves as a bridge between primary and higher

education serves a step towards preparation for higher and professional education. It is

the stage where a proper understanding of work ethos and values of a human and

composite culture is provided to future citizens of the country. "Secondary School is the

division following the elementary school, comprising most often grades from 9 to 10 or

grades 7 to 12". (Good, 1973) "A school more advanced in grade than an elementary

schools and, offering general, technical, vocational or college-preparatory courses."

(Webster's Third New International Dictionary).

1.6.3 Gender Difference

Any significant difference in mental, physical, social and emotional traits that

depends only on the sex of individuals is called the gender difference.

1.6.4 Attitude Towards Mathematics

Researchers often assume different definitions of ATM (Mc Leod, 1992) for

example Leder (1987) and Reyes (1984) used ATM as a general concept that includes

beliefs about self and about Mathematics. The multiplicity of meaning given to the

concept of ATM is the primary culprit of the inconsistencies in the ATM (Anderson,.

1981). A reasonable solution is to measure attitude towards specific mathematical

activities rather than a generalized attitude towards Mathematics (Aiken, 1970b). Hence,

I defined ATM as either positive or negative responses, in terms of importance, difficulty

23
and enjoyment when learning Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry and Trigonometry. This

definition of ATM allowed an examination of whether feelings about Mathematics as

important, difficult and enjoyable causally linked with one another, and with ATM, in

similar way across the four mathematical areas. The Mathematics attitude has therefore

been operationally define as a generalized attitude towards the universe of Mathematics

content and being measured in terms of its favourablenss or unfavourableness estimated

from the score obtained by the subject.

1.6.5 Parent's Education

Father's and mother's educational qualification of the students were considered as

parent's education. Parent's education has been Categorized into four groups i.e. illiterate,

up to class-X, degree level and above.

1.6.6 Parent’s Occupation

Father’s and mother’s occupation were considered as parent’s occupation of the student.

The father’s occupation has been categorized into three groups, i.e. others (farmer, peon,

labour, driver), service class (engineer, doctor, administrator, educationists etc.),

businessman (high status shopkeeper, property developer, jewellery shopkeeper etc.).

1.6.7 Types of Schools

Four types of schools have been considered for this study (1) government school

(2) government aided school (3) private managed school (4) minority managed school.

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1.6.8 Government Schools

Government school means any secondary school fully controlled financed,

supported and administered by local and state government i.e. Uttar Pradesh Government

and based on curriculum of U.P. Board.

1.6.9 Government Aided Schools

Government aided school means any secondary school controlled and

administered by private individuals with a financial support by State Government.

1.6.10 Minority Managed Schools

Minority managed school means any secondary school financed by state govt. but

controlled and administered by minority management committee and based on

curriculum of U.P. Board.

1.6.11 Private Managed Schools

The private schools are completely operated by private individuals, bodies, or

trusts without any financial support and administrative control of State or Central

Government and based on curriculum of Central Board Secondary Education, New Delhi

(CBSE ) or The Indian School Certificate Examination (ISCE).

1.6.12 Medium of instruction

A medium of instruction is a language used in teaching; it may be English or

Hindi for the present study.

1.7 Significance of the Study

The Present study mathematics anxiety of secondary school students in relation to

gender, attitude, parental education, mathematics achievement and school type has taken

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in behavior to investigate the effect of gender, attitude, mathematics achievement,

parental education and type of school on mathematics anxiety.

In most of the earlier studies the relationship of just one or two variables with

anxiety in mathematics has been worked out. To have an idea about the relative

importance of the different variables in determining anxiety in mathematics there is need

to have more comprehensive studies in which a larger number of independent variables

may be included and by working out their relationship with mathematics anxiety the ones

having positive relationship with anxiety may be identified and then through appropriate

statistical techniques their relative importance in determining mathematics anxiety may

be found out. Most of the work in this area has been done in the more developed

countries. Because of the popularity of the social set-up and economic conditions in

India, the findings of these studies may be fully applicable here. There is thus, need to

have the Indian data to see how the different factors are at work in various situations in

this country.

Mathematics anxiety is a dependent variable which depend on many factors.

Mathematics anxiety deserve attentions in present study because of the important part

that mathematics plays in much high school and technological education. Mathematics

anxiety can cause students to avoid challenging math course and may limit their career

choices. So it is important for teachers, parents and students to be aware of the effects of

mathematics anxiety and if the student is affected, they provide them remediation. For

this reason, mathematics anxiety and the factors affecting it like gender, attitude,

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mathematics achievement, parental education and school type has become a important

part for research.

The present study was, therefore, designed to fulfill these needs and it aimed at

identifying variables, having relationship with mathematics anxiety.

Through appropriate statistical techniques an attempt was made to work out the relative

importance of the different variables in determining anxiety in mathematics. If the

education system is to provide equal access to school for all, it requires reliable

information about the cause of anxiety in mathematics among secondary school students.

Several studies have been made to investigate the relationship between anxiety in

mathematics and personal and institutional factors and conflicting results were obtained.

The present study therefore is conducted to determine anxiety in mathematics of

secondary schools students in relation to their personal and institutional factors like

gender, attitude, mathematics achievement, parental education and school type.

1.8 Research Gaps

While there was a number of studies available on mathematics anxiety in

general, there was only a few studies directly related to the mathematics anxiety in math.

Secondly in the opinion of the investigator most of research studies suffered from

methodological drawbacks. The major theoretical and methodological drawbacks were

as follows:

(a) Most of the researchers studied the relationship between attitude and

mathematics anxiety only, leaving aside the other relevant variables.

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 (b) Some of the researchers studied the attitude of students, their socio-

economic status and familial variables in relation to mathematics anxiety

for minority students.

(c) Some researchers studies the relationship of gender, SES and attitude

towards mathemathics on mathematics anxiety of SC/ST students.

On the basis of these gaps the investigator felt that there was need to conduct a

study of the influence of personal and intuitional factors like gender, attitude, parental

education, mathematics achievement and school type on anxiety of secondary school

students in mathematics.

1.9 Research Questions

The research questions for this study include the following:

1. Do gender explain differences in the mathematics anxiety?

2. Does the attitude correlates with mathematics anxiety?

3. Does the mathematics achievement explain differences in the mathematics

anxiety?

4. Does father's education explain differences in the mathematics anxiety?

5. Does mother's education explain differences in the mathematics anxiety?

6. Does father's occupation explain differences in the mathematics anxiety?

7. Do the management types explain differences in the mathematics anxiety?

8. Do the medium of instructions explain differences in the mathematics anxiety?

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1.10 Delimitation

It is not possible in single research study to cover every aspect of variables

associated with the problem under investigation. Although the problem is very natural

and is prevalent everywhere yet due to shortage of time and resources all the aspects of

the variable could not be covered. It had to be determined in terms of population

covered, sample selected, scope of variables studies and so on :-

 The researcher selected the sample mainly from Lucknow district of U.P. India.
 The sample was limited to class 9th grade secondary school students only due to

paucity of time and resources.

 The sample size was limited to 1000 students.
 The study can be conducted taking to number of variables which may affect

mathematic anxiety but only selected personal and institutional factors have been

taken into consideration for present study.

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