Mathematics Anxiety and Academic

Performance in College Student

INTRODUCTION

In recent years, there has been an increasing recognition that mathematics anxiety

plays an important role in students’ learning of mathematics and thus mathematics

anxiety has gained heightened awareness by mathematics educators as an important

factor in the teaching of mathematics (Bursal & Paznokas, 2006; Thomas & Higbee, 1999;

McLeod, 1988; Singh, Granville, & Dika, 2002; Sloan, Daane, & Geisen, 2002; Vinson,

2001; Zettle & Raines, 2002.

The attitude of students also affects to the student's performance. In the field of

mathematics education, research on attitude has been motivated by the belief that

'something called "attitude" plays a crucial role in learning mathematics’ (Neale, 1969).

The fear of Math or math-anxiety has been common. Anxiety as defined by (Noting, 2006)

is stress, tension and strain brought into one’s body and mind. It can be of two types-

semantic that involves the loss of control of the body, having sweaty palms, pain in the

neck or sick to the stomach, which involves loss of concentration, having negative self-

talk, feelings of doubt or mind wanders from test. It is accompanied by feeling of

helplessness because the anxious person feels blocked, unable to find a solution to his

problem. Further, Tobias (1993) defines mathematics anxiety as feelings of tension and

anxiety that interfere with the manipulation of numbers and the solving of mathematical
problems in a wide variety of ordinary life and academic situations and can cause one to

forget and loose one’s self-confidence.

In international setting there exists a crisis in mathematics education in South

Africa. Central to economic prosperity is that a numerically literate citizenry be able to

engage, manipulate, and understand mathematics as it constitutes an indispensable facet

of our daily lives (Adler, Brombacher & Shan 2000). City Press (2012) reports that one in

six Grade 12 mathematics learners scored less than 10% in the subject Mathematics in

2011. There has also been a massive decline in the number of learners enrolling for

mathematics in recent years. For example, 300,000 learners wrote the mathematics paper

in 2008, compared to only 225,000 in 2011. Many South Africans involved 268 South

African Journal of Education, Volume 32(3), August 2012 in education and business view

the decline in passes and enrollments in scarce or gateway subjects as a worrying trend.

In the Philippine concept, as cited in a research conducted by Cabahug and Ladot

(2005), the University of the Philippines’ greatest failure is in mathematics. It is also said

that repetition in mathematics is common among UP students that most one out of three

repeat a mathematics course. Cabahug and Ladot (2005) also said that the faculty of the

UP Cebu Natural Science and Mathematics Division or NSMD have felt the declining

performance of students in basic mathematics. It is also stated that the attitude towards

mathematics and achievement in mathematics have always been a factor Fullarton (1993)

as cited in Cabahug and Ladot (2005), stated that poor attitude towards mathematics is

often being said as one of the contributing factors to lower participation and less success
in the courses. Neale (1969) still cited in Cabahug and Ladot (2005), said that the attitude

towards mathematics affects performance as performance in turn affects attitudes.

This study sought to determine the relationship between math anxiety and

academic performance of the College of students.

This study focus to answer the following questions.

1. What is the level of math anxiety of the students in terms of?

1.1 environmental factors

1.2 intellectual factors

1.3 personal factors

2. How does math anxiety affect the academic performance of the students?

3. What is the relationship of student's attitude of mathematics towards their

performance?

The framework of this study is based on the study as cited in the Master

Thesis of by HİLAL KURUM, 2012. The Independent Variable is the Math Anxiety

while the Dependent Variable refers to the student’s performance in terms of the

student's grades in the subject of Mathematics. The Independent variable had

three indicators influenced the dependent variable. The indicators are

environmental, intellectual and personal factors that causes Math Anxiety.

 Math anxiety has been an interest of many experts because they want to find out

the factors that triggers this situation. Tobias (1978) described it as "sudden death", but

Kogelman and Warren (1979) say it is an adverse reaction to mathematics, while Byrd

(1982) says it is any situation when one experiences anxiety "when confronted with

mathematics in any way” which includes the three main factors: environmental,

intellectual and personality variables.

Environmental factors include classroom issues, parental pressure and the perception

of mathematics as a rigid set of rules. However, Suggate, Davis and Goulding

(1998:X) suggest a lack of enjoyment in students of mathematics who

are mentally scared by past experiences of failure with teachers’ expectations set too high

(Haylock, 2003). Likewise, Brady and Bowd (2005) provide evidence of students being

expected to understand after brief explanations of concepts, and even teachers

embarrassing students causes math-anxiety. Haylock (2003) provides evidence of the

negative effect of the teacher’s response failure to understand on the part of the learner.

Another identified concern is the feeling of ‘being found out’ by someone judgmental and

‘in authority’ (Buxton, 1981), with teachers always seen as correct and students accepting

blame for not understanding. Brady and Bowd (2005) describe hostility, impatience and

insensitivity in mathematics teachers that added to mathematics anxiety. While, Rossnan

(2006) emphasized that math anxiety could develop as a result of a student’s prior

negative experiences learning mathematics in the classroom or at home. Furthermore,

most observed failures and substandard performance in mathematics are due to

insufficient teaching-learning environment (Reusser, 2000). Other studies such as those

of Faust, Ashcraft and Fleck (1996), Ashcraft (2002), Aschraft and Kirk (2001), and Brady

and Bowd (2005) defined math-anxiety as a form of state anxiety as it is manifested in

certain situations. The range of descriptions mentioned above comes about because math

anxiety is a broad term used by many individuals to cover a wide range of observed

characteristics in students. For example, some use it to describe the supposed cause of

physiological symptoms when encountering math, such as sweaty palms, nausea, heart

palpitations, a hot tingling feeling, stomachaches or stomach cramps, and/or tightening

muscles (Godbey, 1997; Perry, 2004). Others use this term to classify the psychological

symptoms that manifest themselves in situations involving mathematical tasks.

Intellectual variables include a mismatch of learning styles and self-doubt.

Mathematics done at speed is revealed as a negative past school experience (Buxton,

1981) alongside the need for accuracy and showing neat working out (Cockcroft, 1982).

Personality factors include a reluctance to ask questions in class and low self-esteem.

According to Cockcroft (1982) Once attitudes have been formed, they

can be very persistent and difficult to change. Chinn (2008) argues that the advantage

of this tripartite model is that it considers several, often inter-related factors. However,

besides parents, other individuals who either contribute to or are experiencing

mathematics anxiety are not clearly stated. A further classification by Baloglu and Kocak

(2006) cite three anchors of mathematics anxiety, namely: dispositional, situational, and

environmental. In addition to Hadfield and McNeil’s elements of the environmental

variable, Baloglu and Kocak view the elements thereof as issues that affect learners

prior to their mathematical engagements; these include age, gender, academic subjects,
and previous mathematics experience. The dispositional anchor deals with psychological

and emotional features such as attitudes towards mathematics, self-concept, and

learning styles. The self- concept refers to the learners’ perception of their own ability to

perform well in mathematics and to learn new topics. The situational anchor refers to

direct features that result from the developers of the MARS (Math Anxiety Rating Scale)

say it "involves feelings of tension and anxiety that interfere with the manipulation of

numbers and the solving of mathematical problems in a wide variety of ordinary and

academic situations" Richardson and Suinn, 1972”. However according (Newstead,

1995) stated that is not easy task to determine the causes of math anxiety, where and

how it begins and grows. There is some lack of agreement about the possible causes of

mathematics anxiety in children. In his studies the possible causes include teacher

anxiety, societal, educational or environmental factors, innate characteristics of

mathematics, failure and the influence of preschool experiences of mathematics.

Beginnings of anxiety can often be traced to negative classroom experiences seems

particularly strong and well documented (Tobias, 1978; Stodolsky, 1985). In assessment

and evaluation system also there is a tendency to develop a negative attitude to the

students‟ minds.

Results reveal that there still exists mathematics anxiety among college students.

However, gender-related factors do not influence mathematics anxiety. This study also

shows that there is a difference in mathematics achievement of students based on their

level of mathematics anxiety. Many students face this sort of anxiety, hence, teachers

need to be ensure that the classroom environment is made in such a way that the
students will feel more successful. Incorrect answers should be dealt within

a more positive way so to encourage and make the student more confident.

Therefore, teachers should strive to understand mathematics anxiety and implement

teaching and learning strategies so that students can overcome their anxiety.

In addition, traditional teaching should be changed according to the learning styles of

the student. As a result of all this, once the students finds out that math is fun, they

will enjoy it and this will hold good throughout their lives. Thus, this study has

implications for all parties, including teachers, schools and parents, encouraging those

with a vested interest in the success of their students to take into account math anxiety

levels before determining effective and appropriate strategies when teaching and

learning is carried out. In this way, it is hoped that the level of mathematics anxiety can

be reduced.