SME 3023

TRENDS AND ISSUES IN EDUCATION FOR MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES

FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH MATHEMATICS ANXIETY

NAME : NURUL NABIHA BINTI YAHAYA NO. MATRIX : D20081032323 NAME OF LECTURER : PROF. DR. MARZITA PUTEH

Title: Factors Associated with Mathematics Anxiety. 1) What is mathematics anxiety? Before we go through the meaning of mathematics anxiety, we should refer the definition of anxiety which is determined by Sigmund Freud (1936) as he regarded anxiety as something felt of an unpleasant emotional state that is universally experienced. Then, Freuds formulation of the anxiety included three criteria which regarding with the experience of mathematics anxiety as an anxiety state is unpleasant, has physiological concomitants such as muscular tension, tremor, sweating, heart palpitation and breathing difficulty and this situation is consciously experienced. Therefore, from the definition of anxiety we can say that mathematics anxiety has been defined as feeling of tension and anxiety that interfere with the manipulation of numbers and solving of mathematical problems in a wide variety of ordinary life and academic solution. According to Tobias (1978), mathematics anxiety can cause one to forget and lose ones self confidence. People who suffer from mathematics anxiety feel that they are incapable of doing activities and classes involve mathematics. Mathematics anxiety is an emotional rather than intellectual problem. However, it interferes with a persons ability to learn mathematics and therefore results in an intellectual problem.

2) Why does it happen? Mathematics is perceived as an important subject and sometimes it is looked upon as an indication of intelligence. Therefore, on passing the Lower Secondary Assessment examination, in which mathematics is one of the compulsory subjects for the students to pass, they will proceed to two more years of upper secondary education, at the end of which they sit for the Malaysian Certificate of Education. So, a good grade in mathematics is a passport for any student to enable them to be accepted into any institute of higher learning and at the same time, widening the scope of the choices of courses they could take up. Hence, through their primary years right up to the secondary level, the students are subjected to an enormous amount of pressure to perform well in mathematics and indirectly this seems to create an anxiety of it. These examinations are the determinant of the students future. Furthermore, the most important elements of the perceived reasons for learning mathematics among Malaysians is its importance as a passport to either being able to continue further education through acceptance to higher institutions or a promise to a better

paid job. Hence it is no surprise that every parent feels the need for their children to achieve excellence in this field. In addition, mathematics is often regarded as a subject basic to science and technology development and plays a significant role in our daily lives. For example, mathematics is important in the area of industrial and commercial needs because the activity calls for an increasing demand on the mathematical expertise from all our students. 3) Who has it? According to Burton (1979), one who experiences this mathematics anxiety makes a large number of students minds go blank momentarily even when a simple mathematical calculation is called for. Sweating palms, queasy stomach, panic, fear, clenched fists, cold sweat, helplessness, tension, distress, dry mouth, shame and inability to cope and so on: these are just a few of the signs of mathematical anxiety. A study by Betz (1978) suggests that mathematics anxiety is a problem for many college students, including even those in advanced mathematics classes and whose majors require an extensive background in mathematics. Another study done by English (1989) on in-service teachers reveals that teachers exhibiting higher mathematics anxiety levels were more likely to be female, more likely to have a lower attitude toward mathematics, less likely to have performed well in mathematics course, more likely to have completely fewer mathematics courses, more likely to have chosen to teach in lower grades and less likely to have felt competent in teaching mathematics. In addition, the researcher reveals that mathematics anxiety was not related to the teachers opinions concerning the importance of mathematics to their students as a field of study; nor was it related to the sex bias exhibited by the teachers regarding performance expectations of the subjects relative sex-related importance. This result is in agreement with another research done by Atkinson (1989) earlier which reveals that there is a meaningful correlation between mathematics anxiety and confidence in learning mathematics, test anxiety, motivation, perception of teacher attitudes and perceived usefulness of mathematics. The research further concludes that only the first three variables are significant predictors of mathematics anxiety.

Lindquist (1981) found that the level of mathematics studied strongly influences how a college student will feel about mathematics. This study also found that the level of mathematics anxiety is related to scores on a standardized mathematics achievements test. Hence people with higher achievement scores tended to report lower mathematics anxiety. Mathematics anxiety occurs in both males and females and care must be taken not to add mathematics anxiety stereotype view that females are less capable in mathematics than males, just because females have a known tendency to be more willing to report their feelings than males (Lindquist, 1981). Furthermore, primary school teachers are often found to suffer most acutely from mathematics anxiety (Briggs, 1993; Briggs and Crook, 1991), possibly because of the lack of a firm foundation in mathematics, coupled with the nature of the subject itself. 4) When this happen? Mathematics anxiety is considered to be a common characteristic among many students and adults (Buxton, 1981).The meaningful study of any subject depends in part on the learners interest and this interest is in turn affected by attitude and ability in the subject. Buxton (1981), Clarke (1985) and Quilter and Harper (1988), similarly stress the dysfunctional effects due to heightened anxiety that can occur during exposure to mathematics. Fears if mathematics could also lead to avoidance of things related to it. Tobias (1978) claimed that discomfort with mathematics in elementary or secondary school could develop into full-fledged syndrome of anxiety and avoidance by the time the students graduated from high school. An aspect which emerged as of particular significant in discussion about disliking mathematics was the question of when this disliking had begun. The teacher trainees identified four particular sources for their dislike of the subject like the transfer from primary to secondary school, national examination, teacher style of teaching and teachers personality and constant failure in solving mathematical problems.

5) What created it? Lazarus (1974) and Wilhelm and Brooks (1980) added that negative parental attitudes may be transmitted to their children and that parents often reinforce their childrens mathematics anxiety. Mathematics anxiety obviously develops in some persons during the early years of schooling (Bush, 1991) and a clear understanding of the causes of mathematics anxiety is unlikely unless it is studied during its development in early school experiences. From the research that was conducted (Puteh, 1998), it was found that the causes of mathematics anxiety were related to teacher personality and their style of teaching, public examinations and their effect, effective domain of the self factor such as personality and perception, feelings, worries and difficulties, parental expectations on their aspirations and standards, peer group influences and relevance to the usage of mathematics in everyday life. According to Puteh (2002) also, the most significant contributions to the formations of negative attitudes and mathematics anxiety appear to be students fear of asking for help, teachers blaming students for not understanding, teachers ridiculing students, teachers strictness and fierceness, use of threats and force by teachers, teachers not showing interest in their students and a teaching style which emphasises the transfer of information and routines with attention to the little attention to the learning of the individual. In the Malaysian scenario, there exists a general feeling that students are weak in mathematics and that many attribute this weakness to the attitudes that the students hold towards mathematics. In this culture, it would seem that mistaken beliefs about mathematics contribute to the negative, anxious feelings many people have about mathematics. These beliefs or myths are dangerous because they are seldom questioned and acted upon as if they were true. 6) How do you reduce it? Morris (1981) in her article entitled Math Anxiety: Teaching to avoid it, suggested constructive techniques and strategies for teachers to help prevent math anxiety among students. The techniques suggested are create a positive and supportive classroom atmosphere, stress understanding the thought process, dispel the math mind myth, provide new positive math experiences, use concrete materials to teach content and make sure each concept is understood before continuing. In the class, teacher also should reduce tension and

pressure in mathematics classes, give positive feedback on written tests and be sensitive but determined.

7) How do you eliminate Morris (1981) stated that mathematics tends to lend itself to being taught with procedures that unnecessarily build tension and pressure in some students. Then, she offered several suggestions for overcoming such problems such as minimise or eliminate such tests and replace them by other less threatening forms of assessment, refrain from isolating a student at the blackboard but instead request that students work together in small groups cooperatively on problems and eliminate show-of-hands competitions and class contests that openly compare one student with another, as many students are particularly distressed by such competitiveness. Parents and family involvement in the mathematics education of their children is crucial and a students self esteem and mathematical confidence is directly related to his or her parents perceptions and expectations (Kober, 1991). Parents affect the childs attitude and performance in three way according to Poffenberger and Norton (1959) that by parental encouragement, by parental attitudes and by parental expectations of childs achievement. The importance of dealing with the problem of mathematics anxiety and avoidance is evident from the existence of intervention programmes and math clinics. Furthermore, making teachers or teacher trainees aware of the existence of mathematics anxiety might be a starting point for them to help their students overcome their mathematics anxiety while addressing their own mathematics anxiety at the same time. So, from all these activities the syndrome of mathematics anxiety can be eliminating among our students and society.