Abstract
Mathematics anxiety and attitude have a great influence on mathematics performance. This article presents an analysis of the relationship between Mathematics anxiety, attitude and performance. The study adopted a correlational research design. The analysis is based on the responses of 367 students who were randomly selected from 55 secondary schools. An adapted Mathematics Anxiety Scale (MAS) and Attitude towards Mathematics Inventory (ATMI) were used. The performance grades for the students were also gathered from the teachers whereby the list that contained the students’ marks also contained the admission numbers of the students for easier linkage with the individual student questionnaire. The data were analyzed using the scatter plot diagram to give the outline of the relationship and Spearman’s correlation coefficient to find out whether there is a significant relationship between Mathematics anxiety, Mathematics attitude and performance. There was a positive significant linear relationship between Mathematics anxiety and Mathematics attitude (r= 0.538, p< 0.05). There was a negative significant linear relationship between Mathematics performance and Mathematics anxiety (r= -0.723, p< 0.05). This shows that Mathematics attitude correlates with Mathematics anxiety which later correlates with Mathematics performance of the students, hence the two variables should be given appropriate attention to produce better and positive results in terms of performance. Key words: Mathematics anxiety, Mathematics attitude, Mathematics performance.
Highlights
Mathematics is a fundamental part of school curriculum as a subject and acts as a tool for the development of other sciences
This study has revealed that there is a relationship between Mathematics anxiety and Mathematics attitude of secondary school students
Mathematics anxiety can be in three levels: low, moderate, and high anxiety while Mathematics attitude can either be positive or negative towards Mathematics
Summary
Mathematics is a fundamental part of school curriculum as a subject and acts as a tool for the development of other sciences. Mathematics anxiety is one of the main reasons for these avoidance behaviours (Gafoor and Kurukkan, 2015). Ashcraft (2002) reported that students show a severe negative emotional response in situations that involve numerical and mathematical activities, a situation referred to as Math anxiety (Ruff and Boes, 2014). It is vital to detect math anxiety in children to prevent them from developing an avoidance of mathematics which might bring about lasting effects (Aarnos and Perkkilä, 2012). Low/moderate levels result in students focusing on mathematics computations and problem solving, while high levels result in much tension which prevents the students from participating in the mathematical task ahead
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