Abstract
Development of mathematical understanding is an active process involving mathematical structures and actions. Why do students not understand mathematics? What are the reasons for that? Students have some difficulties to understand mathematics and one of them is anxiety. Mathematics anxiety is defined as an uncomfortable feeling experienced when performing a mathematical task, which is seen as an obstacle to learning mathematics. For this reason, the aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between middle school students’ mathematics anxiety and their mathematical understanding. In addition to this, possible relationship was analyzed according to gender and grade levels variables. The relational screening model was used. The study was carried out with 466 middle school students. “Determining the Mathematical Understanding Levels Scale” and “Mathematics Anxiety-Apprehension Survey” were used as data collection instruments. According to the results of the study, there was a significant strong positive correlation between middle school students’ mathematics anxiety and their mathematical understanding. On the other hand, the results showed no significant differences between students’ mathematics anxiety and their mathematical understanding with respect to gender. However, the findings revealed significant differences in both students’ mathematics anxiety and their mathematical understanding with respect to grade levels.
Highlights
Understanding is the act of transferring or connecting a representation or a condition to another representation or condition (Smith, 1996)
The development in understanding in the theory is considered as an active process including mathematical structures and actions (Martin, 2008)
Mathematical understanding can be defined as an active process that includes the thought flow among different layers of the mathematical structures
Summary
Understanding is the act of transferring or connecting a representation or a condition to another representation or condition (Smith, 1996). Understanding is a dynamic and organized process and is defined as the different aspects of the same subject (Pirie & Kieren, 1994; Usiskin, 2012). According to Pirie-Kieren’s theory, the development of understanding consists of non-linear layers. The development in understanding in the theory is considered as an active process including mathematical structures and actions (Martin, 2008). In this context, mathematical understanding can be defined as an active process that includes the thought flow among different layers of the mathematical structures. It is important to learn mathematics by understanding because it involves abstract terms (Altun, 2008; Jung, 2002). If students do not understand any subject, what is the reason for it? It is important to investigate why students do not understand mathematics
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