Theory-Based Interventions to Reduce Math Anxiety and Enhance Achievement

Using a brain-computer interface (BCI) in reducing math anxiety: Evidence from South Africa

In the quest to improve mathematics proficiency, it is worthwhile to emphasize not only enhancing instructional strategies but also developing a positive attitude towards mathematics. One of the things that hinder students’ performance is math anxiety, which interferes with cognitive and learning processes. This research determined the level and causes of math anxiety among students and developed an instructional material to improve their performance in mathematics. The study is an educational design research (EDR). Data on the levels of math anxiety were gathered from 307 Mathematics students, and the causes were examined through focus group discussions with 50 students and 4 mathematics specialists. Using this data, an instructional material was developed and pilot implemented in a mathematics class of forty- two (42) students. Findings revealed that 80.13% of the student- respondents had Average to High Math Anxiety. The causes of math anxiety were mainly negative experiences such as past failures, pressure to find the correct answers, embarrassment in front of peers, and strict teachers. Instructional materials that reduce math anxiety are easy to understand, contain varied activities, and incorporate additional online resources. Analysis of paired samples t-test conducted using SPSS resulted to a t-value of -12.513 and a p-value of 0.000, revealing that the instructional material significantly lowered math anxiety and improved the student’s performance in mathematics. It is recommended that universities expand guidance and counseling services to recognize math anxiety as an integral factor in students’ mental health and conduct a review of the mathematics instructional materials to evaluate their adequacy in lowering the math anxiety.

Math anxiety is a prevalent issue among junior high school students, particularly those in rural areas with left-behind experiences who often receive insufficient attention in research and interventions. Rural left-behind children face higher academic stress and mental health risks due to long-term parental absence, and peer support and psychological resilience may serve as important protective factors in alleviating their math anxiety. This study involved 572 junior high school students from rural settings who completed the Peer Support Scale, Math Anxiety Scale, and Youth Psychological Resilience Scale. The findings indicate that peer support is negatively associated with math anxiety, with psychological resilience mediating this relationship. Additionally, the left-behind experience significantly moderates the relationship between psychological resilience and math anxiety. The findings suggest that peer support indirectly reduces math anxiety by enhancing psychological resilience, but that the experience of staying behind weakens this protective effect. This study highlights the importance of fostering supportive peer interactions and enhancing resilience to address educational challenges faced by vulnerable rural students, especially those with a left-behind experience. It also emphasizes the need to design more targeted interventions to support these students.

Math anxiety is a negative emotional reaction that is characterized by feelings of stress and anxiety in situations involving mathematical problem solving. High math-anxious individuals tend to avoid situations involving mathematics and are less likely to pursue science, technology, engineering, and math-related careers than those with low math anxiety. Math anxiety during childhood, in particular, has adverse long-term consequences for academic and professional success. Identifying cognitive interventions and brain mechanisms by which math anxiety can be ameliorated in children is therefore critical. Here we investigate whether an intensive 8 week one-to-one cognitive tutoring program designed to improve mathematical skills reduces childhood math anxiety, and we identify the neurobiological mechanisms by which math anxiety can be reduced in affected children. Forty-six children in grade 3, a critical early-onset period for math anxiety, participated in the cognitive tutoring program. High math-anxious children showed a significant reduction in math anxiety after tutoring. Remarkably, tutoring remediated aberrant functional responses and connectivity in emotion-related circuits anchored in the basolateral amygdala. Crucially, children with greater tutoring-induced decreases in amygdala reactivity had larger reductions in math anxiety. Our study demonstrates that sustained exposure to mathematical stimuli can reduce math anxiety and highlights the key role of the amygdala in this process. Our findings are consistent with models of exposure-based therapy for anxiety disorders and have the potential to inform the early treatment of a disability that, if left untreated in childhood, can lead to significant lifelong educational and socioeconomic consequences in affected individuals. Significance statement: Math anxiety during early childhood has adverse long-term consequences for academic and professional success. It is therefore important to identify ways to alleviate math anxiety in young children. Surprisingly, there have been no studies of cognitive interventions and the underlying neurobiological mechanisms by which math anxiety can be ameliorated in young children. Here, we demonstrate that intensive 8 week one-to-one cognitive tutoring not only reduces math anxiety but also remarkably remediates aberrant functional responses and connectivity in emotion-related circuits anchored in the amygdala. Our findings are likely to propel new ways of thinking about early treatment of a disability that has significant implications for improving each individual's academic and professional chances of success in today's technological society that increasingly demands strong quantitative skills.

Today mathematics stress have considered under interesting of many psychologists of mathematics education and cognitive psychologists too so that recognize emotion and mental stimulations of students in mathematics and to find scientific strategies for removing and controlling them. Anxiety is one of important and effective issues of 21th century. This study is done with aim of the study of relationship between mothers' anxiety with mathematics performance and anxiety of their children at first grade of high school at zone one of Tehran. Among population, 97 students and their mothers are chosen. Data of this research are collected by Cattell standard questionnaire for studying mothers' anxiety and standard questionnaire of mathematics anxiety for studying mathematics anxiety and a math exam for studying of students' performance. Research findings indicate that there is significant relationship between mothers' anxiety with mathematics anxiety and performance of students. Also it indicated that there is significant difference between students with high and low mathematics anxiety in term of mathematics performance.

Hearing loss can be a major detriment to academic achievement among students. The present comparative study examines the differences in mathematics motivation, anxiety, and performance in female students with hearing loss and their hearing peers. A total of 63 female students with hearing loss (deaf and hard-of-hearing) and 63 hearing female students were selected to participate in the study. The two groups of students were matched in terms of the city of residence, academic year, academic grade, and age. The Mathematics Motivation Scale and the Mathematics Anxiety Survey were used for data collection. The students’ mathematics scores in the first and second semesters of school were used as indicators of their mathematics performance. The data obtained were analyzed using the MANOVA. The results of the study showed a higher intrinsic goal orientation in both hard-of-hearing and hearing students than in the deaf students; extrinsic goal orientation was higher in the deaf and hard-of-hearing students than in the hearing students; and task value, control belief, and mathematics self-efficacy were lower in the deaf and hard-of-hearing students than in the hearing students. The findings of the study also showed that mathematics test anxiety and mathematics anxiety were higher in the hard-of-hearing and deaf students than in their hearing peers. Moreover, mathematics performance was higher in the hearing students than in their deaf and hard-of-hearing peers.

<p style="text-align:justify">This study examined the impact of modular distance learning on students' motivation, interest/attitude, anxiety and achievement in mathematics. This was done at the Gabaldon, Nueva Ecija, Philippines during the first and second grading of the academic year 2021-2022. The study included both a descriptive-comparative and descriptive-correlational research design. The 207 high school students were chosen using stratified sampling. According to the findings, students have a very satisfactory rating in mathematics. Students agree that they are motivated, enthusiastic, and have a positive attitude toward mathematics. They do, however, agree that mathematics causes them anxiety. When students are subdivided based on sex, their mathematics interest and anxiety differ significantly. However, there was no significant difference in interest/attitude and achievement. When students are divided into age groups, their mathematics motivation, interest/attitude, anxiety, and achievement differ significantly. Students' motivation, anxiety, and achievement differ significantly by year level. There was a positive relationship between and among mathematics motivation, interest/attitude, and achievement. However, there is a negative association between mathematics anxiety and mathematics motivation; mathematics anxiety and mathematical interest/attitude; and mathematics anxiety and mathematical performance. The study's theoretical and practical implications were also discussed, and recommendations for educators and researchers were given.</p>

to general feelings such as liking/disliking of mathematics, nor is it meant to exclude perceptions of the difficulty, usefulness, and appropriateness of mathematics as a school subject. There are several ways affective variables are related to mathematics learning. It is likely that a student who feels very positive about mathematics will achieve at a higher level than a student who has a negative attitude toward mathematics. It is also likely that a high achiever will enjoy mathematics more than a student who

The experience of math anxiety can have detrimental effects on students’ math performance, and researchers have in recent years tried to design interventions aiming at reducing math anxiety. This meta-analysis aimed to examine the effectiveness of math anxiety interventions in reducing math anxiety and improving math performance. The meta-analysis comprised 50 studies and included 75 effect sizes. On average, the effect sizes were moderate (g = -0.467) for reducing math anxiety and improving math performance (g = 0.502). Interventions that focused on Cognitive support or regulating Emotions were effective both in reducing math anxiety and improving math performance. In addition, longer interventions and interventions targeting students older than 12 had the biggest decrease in math anxiety. Study quality was not related to intervention outcomes.

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.

This paper attempts to compare students ’academic performance in mathematics on the basis of their level of mathematics anxiety. Moreover, students ’IQand SES are known to influence their academic performance in mathematics. Fence students ’IQand SES are included as control variables whose effect from academic performance in mathematics was removed statistically and then it was compared on the basis of the level of students ’mathematics anxiety was studied. The participants of the study included 703 students of standard 8th from S.S.C board schools. Mathematics anxiety was measured using Mathematics Anxiety Scale (MARS-I) by Karimi (2008). Students ’final examination marks in mathematics subject were considered as academic performance scores of mathematics. Results indicated that there is a significant difference in academic performance of students by mathematics anxiety. There is no significant difference in academic performance of students by mathematics anxiety when an effect of IQhas been removed statistically. This implies that the difference in students ’academic performance in mathematics on the basis of their mathematics anxiety arose on account of their IQrather than their mathematics anxiety. There is significant difference in academ ic performance of students by mathematics anxiety when effect of SES has been removed statistically. It may be concluded that the academic performance of students with low mathematics anxiety is significantly greater than that of students with moderate mathematics anxiety after controlling for their SES. The findings of the study would enable teachers to develop programmes to facilitate academic performance of students from different SES backgrounds and with different levels of IQ

: Mathematics attainment has taken on a global focus for the furtherance of economic advancement, thus, magnetizing for the appraisal of mathematical edification among school students. However, evidence suggests that mathematics anxiety is a salient contributing factor that obstructs success in mathematics. Drawing upon the evidence, this investigation explores the relationship between mathematics anxiety, performance and strategies that students perceived that could attenuate mathematics anxiety. Data from this study was collected using the mixed method approach of a survey and interview from forty-two Form One students with different levels of academic achievements from one school in Alor Setar, Kedah, Malaysia. All participants demonstrated a moderate level of mathematics anxiety. However, students from the low performance level displayed inverse and strong relationship between mathematics anxiety and mathematics performance. This indicates that mathematics performance declines with augmented mathematics anxiety. The linear regression revealed that all the three factors of emotion, assessment, and environment are not statistically significant predictors of mathematics achievement. Regardless, emotion has been discerned as a significant predictor of mathematics anxiety for high performance group of students. The interview revealed that students perceive games, cooperative groups, teaching aids, demonstration, rewards, and teachers with positive classroom attitude have contributed to overcoming mathematics anxiety. Results from this study suggest a strong relationship between anxiety and mathematics performance among low performing students which further indicated the importance for mathematics teachers to vary their teaching and learning activities in assisting students to cope with mathematics anxiety.

Past empirical studies show that marketing undergraduates, in general, perform poorly in quantitativebased activities. However, numerical skills involving solving and analyzing numerical information is a skill set in high demand among business organizations. Unfortunately, students continue to struggle with high levels of math anxiety affecting their math self-concept and math self-efficacy. Structural equation model analysis is used to examine relationships among the constructs. Results confirm that math anxiety has a significant negative impact on both math self-concept and math self-efficacy, which in turn has positive impacts on math performance. Math self-concept and math self-efficacy also provide effective mediations to students’ math performances. To impact the longitudinal implications of quantitative literacy for marketing majors, a more holistic view is needed that simultaneously addresses approaches that reduce math anxiety, increase math self-concept, increase math self-efficacy, and result in greater levels of math performance.

Parents’ math anxiety and mathematics performance of pre-kindergarten children

This study examined how coaching by a professional development provider assuaged math anxiety in elementary teachers. Studies have shown that elementary teachers have high levels of math anxiety which can lead them to avoid teaching mathematics in productive ways and ultimately pass their math anxiety on to students. This study furthers the research on interventions for math anxiety in teachers currently serving in the classroom. Transformative Learning Theory was applied as a theoretical framework for this study. Semi-structured interviews and coaching sessions over the course of several months were conducted with four elementary school teachers who self-identified as having math anxiety. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was applied to interpret how coaching affected teacher math anxiety. Themes which emerged were experiences with math anxiety being heard, the impact of modeling, changes in teaching and mindset or behaviors. Assessment of these themes in regard to the research questions, literature, and theoretical framework revealed that coaching helped reduce math anxiety and change how participants saw themselves as mathematicians. Recommendations for changes in professional development for math anxiety in teachers were discussed. Keywords: math anxiety, teacher math anxiety, content coaching, professional development, modeling, interventions for math anxiety --Author's abstract