The Impact of Mathematics Anxiety on the Performance of Students of Electromagnetics

Abstract

BackgroundAlthough the negative effects of academic anxiety on students' learning performance have long been recognised, the consequences of mathematics anxiety on the performance of engineering students have not yet been widely studied.Purpose(Hypothesis)This study examined how the perceived mathematics anxiety of engineering students can be related to their performance in electromagnetics.Design/MethodThe data were collected from an undergraduate Static Field Theory course at the Helsinki University of Technology, Finland. Mathematics anxiety was evaluated with the Electromagnetics Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale (EMARS), which consists of five qualitatively different components: usefulness, mathematics confidence, interpretation anxiety, fear of asking for help, and persistency. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics, correlation, and analysis of variance (ANOVA).ResultsThe study showed a significant relation between mathematics anxiety and the students' performance in electromagnetics. Individuals with high mathematics anxiety were significantly less successful in the examination and the concept test when compared with individuals with low mathematics anxiety. However, students with high mathematics anxiety performed relatively well in the concept test when compared to their performance in workout problems, often even better than individuals with medium mathematics anxiety.ConclusionThe study suggests that in curriculum design and in assessment practices, there could be more emphasis on conceptual understanding, which is shown to arouse less anxiety among low‐achieving students in this particular group.