AMA Computer College Legazpi City Branch

Old Albay District

Reasons why some of the AMACC

Legazpi Branch students have Fear
on Mathematics

Research Adviser:
Mr. Junniel Grutas

Reseachers:
June Batacan
Justine Daniel Orense
CHAPTER 1
 Introduction

Education has given individuals enough reason to decide which among the topics for learning
shall be retained and maintained throughout our life. The foundation subjects are enough for students
to start a new and look at life in different perspective. However, of the various learning areas in basic
education, Mathematics gives students problems coming from within or leading from without.
Mathematics anxiety is real and can happen to anyone at any age regardless of his mathematical ability.
Since mathematics is perhaps the most abstract among academic subjects, many students avoid and
dislike it.

Mathematics anxiety is generally defined as a state of discomfort caused by performing

mathematical tasks. Math anxiety can be manifested as feelings of apprehension, dislike, tension, worry,
frustration, and fear. It is not clear what factors result in the appearance of math anxiety. Nevertheless,
potential causal factors include environmental variables (negative experiences in class, teacher
characteristics), intellectual variables (the degree of abstract or logical thinking), and personality
variables (self-esteem, learning style, attitude and confidence).

Mathematics anxiety can develop in the early school years and becomes increasingly common
with age. It is thought to affect a notable proportion of the school age population and adults in post-
secondary education. Importantly, math anxiety has several negative effects on children’s and adult’s
mathematical education. For example, people who experience high levels of math anxiety are likely to
develop negative attitudes toward tasks involving mathematics, drop out of elective mathematics
classes or avoid taking them altogether; in addition, those with high math anxiety avoid pursuing careers
that require quantitative skills.

Statement of the Problem

The problem was identified during a mathematic lesson where some of students could not solve
a mathematical problems which was taught before previously or before the exams because of fear of
been beaten or fear of the subject. The researchers observed that student get tensed whenever it is
change over mathematics lesson. It was also observed that most of the student could not do simple
understand simple mathematical calculation. It is against this background that the researchers is
investigating into these problems and also to design an intervention and process to arrest the situation.

Research Question

The researchers formulated the following questions to serve as a guide for the research.

1. What is mathematic anxiety?

2. What are the causes of mathematics anxiety among the students of AMACC Legazpi?
3. In what way does mathematics anxiety contributes to the poor performance of mathematics
among from one student of AMACC Legazpi?
 4. What are some of teaching strategies that can used to minimized or prevent mathematics
anxiety among from one student of AMACC Legazpi?

Research Objectives

1. Interview a 15-20 students to know their own answers based on the topic
2. Make a possible way to prevent math anxiety

Significance of the Study

The findings of the study will be beneficial to the policy maker and curriculum developers in
preparation curriculum materials and implementation of policies for the basic schools of the country. It
will also help parent to buy supplementary books and take their wards education seriously.

The outcome of the study will be helpful to students, and teachers. It will provide students
performance in mathematics and its ripple effect will be felt in other subjects. The outcome will enable
teachers to employ appropriate teaching technique and also strengthen a good student-teacher
relationship to ease unnecessary tension on students in their lesson delivery. Again, the outcome of the
study will build confidence in students and make them love the subject they dreaded most so that they
can advance to higher academic level of education.

Scope and Delimitation

The researchers would have wished to cover all students both Grade 11 and Grade 12 in AMACC
Legazpi but due to time, and financial, the researchers concentrated on only 20 students were sampled
from different strands of AMACC Legazpi.
 Theoretical Framework

Paranoia, the students

thinks they are the only
person not capable
completing the math
problem

Reasons why
Lack of Confidence, the
student anticipate the
some of the
AMACC Legazpi Panic, the students has
feeling of helplessness
s feeling of helplessness
and expect to never Branch students that will not go away
knw the answer to the
problem haveFear in
Mathematics

Passive Behavior, the

students decides they
will never understand
or be comfortable

Hypothesis

Null: Many of the students said that mathematics is not a subject you must fear with because it is easy
to understand.

Alternative: Many of the students said that mathematics is a difficult subject to deal with because of
different equations and difficult problems to solve.

Definition of Terms

The following terms used in the study are defined operationally and conceptually for better
perspective and understanding

 Teachers – this refers to the persons engaged in teaching in the senior high school level whose
mission is to teach students to develop skills to function in society
 Personal – this refers to the one of the factors on Mathematical anxiety which could be
contributory like friend or classmates, family problem or innate trait
 Mathematical Anxiety – it refers to state of discomfort caused by performing mathematical
tasks. Mathematical Anxiety can be manifested as feelings of apprehension, dislike, tension,
frustration and fear
 Intellectual – it refers to cognitive ability of the students in mathematics
 Environment – it refers to one of the variables referring on Mathematical Anxiety which could
be classroom situations, teacher’s attitude and the likes.
CHAPTER 2
 Review of Related Literature and Studies

This chapter presents the review of related literature and studies in foreign and local color
which are pertinent in this study.

Anxiety is stress, tension, and strain brought into one’s body and mind. It can be of two types-
somantic 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 (Noting, 2006). Hurlock (1972) defined anxiety as a painful uneasiness of mind
concerning impending or anticipated ills. It is marked apprehension, uneasiness and apprehension from
which, the individual cannot escape. It is accompanied by feeling of helplessness because the anxious
person feels blocked, unable to find a solution to his problem. Anxiety causes an individual to borrow
from future problems and therefore, suffers the present fear.

Math anxiety is real and can happen to anyone at any age regardless of his mathematical ability.
Since mathematics is perhaps the most abstract among academic subjects, many students dislike and
avoid it. Shores (2005) observes that this math avoidance can turn into a severe case of math anxiety
that, in many cases, has been associated with temporary memory impairment and loss of self-
confidence especially during test or other mathematical tasks. In a 2006 study, Rossnan reports that
even the best mathematicians are not exempt from bouts of math anxiety. Because math anxiety
demonstrates a stubborn impediment in the development of mastery and performance in tasks that
impact upon students’ academic achievement, it has become an important research topic for
mathematics educators and educational psychologists in the past 25 years.

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. Test anxiety is a
learned behaviour, which can be unlearned. Some things that can create test anxiety are: parents,
friends or teachers that may pass their bias to the student to make them believe that there is a
connection between grade and self-worth, fear of alienating parents, family or friends due to poor
grades, anxiety that may be due to not feeling that they are not in control. The cognitive theory of test
anxiety (Meichenbau and Butler, Sarason, 1975; Wine, 1980; Umoinyang, 1999) has three common
components that are very important to consider in a study like this. The first is that high level of test
anxiety is believed to adversely influence students’ self-appraisals of evaluative situation. Secondly, test-
anxious students are prone to engage in more negative thoughts (negative internal dialogue) during
evaluative tasks. Thirdly, students’ performance attributions are believed to be influenced by high level
of text anxiety.

The difficulties in learning mathematics are a fascinating and complex area for study. The
interactions between factors that can be attributed to the cognitive domain and those that can be
attributed to the affective domain are many and varied. For example, anxiety has a negative influence
on working memory. Skemp (page 127) suggested that the reflective activity of intelligence is most
easily inhibited by anxiety. Lundberg and Sterner claim that “over and above common cognitive
demands and neurological representations and functions, performance in reading and arithmetic is
influenced by a number of motivational and emotional factors such as need for achievement, task
orientation, helplessness, depression, anxiety, self-esteem, self-concept….” Hattie selects a pithy quote
from O’Connor and Paunonen, “Whereas cognitive ability reflects what an individual can do, personality
traits reflect what an individual will do.”

The implications on learning of anxiety, motivation, self-worth, self-efficacy and attributional

style are significant particularly in mathematics where curriculum may make inappropriate assumptions
about how some children learn.

Those assumptions may be rooted in beliefs about mathematics that are long established and
embedded in its culture. This does not necessarily make them helpful in creating a positive student
attribute to mathematics, especially for those who have difficulties with learning mathematics or,
indeed, mathematics learning difficulties. For example, Mtetwa and Garofalo discuss 5 beliefs, which
include “mathematics problems have only one correct answer” and “computation problems must be
solved by using a step-by-step algorithm.” The first belief leads children to perceive of mathematics as
highly judgemental, that answers are right or they are wrong. The second belief leads children and their
teachers to perceive of mathematics as a series of procedures which have to be memorised and not
necessarily understood. Ernest reviews the literature on beliefs in his book, “The Psychology of Learning
Mathematics.” Three examples from his review are “some people have a mathematics mind and some
do not,” “mathematicians do problems quickly in their head,” and “mathematics requires a good
memory.” The first belief permits people to rationalise their inabilities in mathematics and to protect
their feelings of self-worth. The second belief sets up children who process some information more
slowly, for example dyslexic children, for failure. The last belief is pervasive, for example, Porkess claims
that “As with any language, the fundamentals of mathematics (multiplication tables and number bonds)
are most easily learnt when you are young.” Unfortunately the reliance on memorising facts and
procedures does not stop there. It could be hypothesised that these beliefs have been, and still are,
influential in the way mathematics’ curricula are designed and in the way mathematics is taught. For
example, the beliefs that surround the task of learning times table facts, where the primary belief is
that, providing the child practises enough, then the learning is guaranteed and achieved early in the
child’s life.
CHAPTER 3
 Research Method, Research Design and Statistical Treatment of Data

Research Method