Mathematics anxiety among prospective elementary school teachers and their treatment

Abstract

Primary school teachers need to master a variety of subjects in the school and must have the competence to teach various subjects, including math. The phenomenon of mathematics anxiety experienced by the elementary school teacher candidate was exaggerated in the form of anxiety response related to learning activities, solving, and discussing math problems. If this anxiety continues, it can impact the declining performance in teaching. As a result, the learning process is not optimal. Such conditions are contradictory to the practical demands of elementary school teachers in schools. One of alternative treatments to reduce the anxiety is by using neuro-linguistic programming. The purpose of this research is to overcome mathematic anxiety of prospective elementary school teachers by using neuro-linguistic programming. This study uses Single Subject Research (SRS) desain A-B-A-B desain for eight respondents. Instruments used Mini Mathematic Anxiety Scale (MMAS) and observation. The results of the study found that after measuring the baseline conditions the level of mathematic anxiety respondents had decreased with an average score of 5.25. Based on the research findings, neuro-linguistic treatment programming can reduce of anxiety level of respondents.