Gender differences in mathematics anxiety and learning motivation of students during the COVID-19

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic is causing a change in the field of education, where learning is currently becoming online. It affects the psychology of the students. This study aimed to analyze the mathematics anxiety and learning motivation of secondary students based on gender during the pandemic. This study was quantitative research. The participants in this study were 451 eighth-grade students of State Secondary School in South Jakarta. The instrument used was a questionnaire. It consisted of 45 statements belonging to 22 items on mathematics anxiety and 23 items on student learning motivation. The data analysis applied was descriptive, Mann-Whitney test, and correlation analysis. The results found that students' mathematics anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic was moderate. Meanwhile, students' learning motivation was in the high category. In addition, there were significant differences in mathematics anxiety levels between male and female students. However, there was no significant difference in the motivation of learning mathematics students. The correlation between mathematics anxiety and learning motivation indicated a negative relationship.