COVID – 19 AND MATH ANXIETY: ITS RELATIONSHIP

TO MATHEMATICS PERFORMANCE OF
OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

An Undergraduate Thesis Proposal

Presented to the Faculty of
College of Education
MINDANAO STATE UNIVERSITY BUUG CAMPUS
Datu Panas, Buug, Zamboanga Sibugay

In Partial Fulfillment of the

Requirements for the Degree of
Bachelor of Secondary Education (BSEd)
Major in Mathematics

JAYVYN N. LUBIANO
MARIO O. VILLARTA, JR.
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE i

TABLE OF CONTENTS ii

CHAPTER 1 – THE PROBLEM AND ITS SCOPE

Introduction 1

Theoretical Background 3

Conceptual Framework 4

Statement of the Problem 4

Hypotheses 5

Significance of the Study 5

Scope and Limitation 6

Definition of Terms 6

CHAPTER II – REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

Related Literature 8

Related Studies 11

CHAPTER III – RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY

Research Design 13

Locale of the Study 13

Participants of the Study 14

Research Instrument 14

Data Gathering Procedure 15

Statistical Tools Used 16

 CHAPTER 1

THE PROBLEM AND ITS SCOPE

Introduction

Covid-19 is first known as the novel coronavirus disease that started in Wuhan, China that

has caused the world to shrink economically. Before it became famous for its name Covid-19, it

was officially named as the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 or SARS-CoV-2

by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses. This virus is highly contagious that

made globalization paused for a while since countries closed their borders to lessen the spread of

the said virus.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic response requires rapid action from multiple sectors of

the government and the society as well. In the new normal, the individuals need to adapt new

behaviors and follow the implemented safety protocols. The government needs to implement

new public measures such as observing 1–meter social distancing, wearing of face masks and

face shields, washing hands with clean water and soap, and the use of disinfectants. Businesses

need to develop new service strategies to operate differently as well as faith leaders in delivering

sermons and holy masses since any form of mass gathering is highly prohibited to avoid close

contacts among people. In line with this is the new adjustments in education, from face-to-face to

online and offline modular.

As such, Covid-19 outbreak can have serious effects on people’s mental health. People

usually suffer from being stereotyped by others, feel helpless, fear of getting sick or dying, and

anxious about losing livelihood. According to Salari et al., nervousness and anxiety affect people

to a large extent. Knowing that this virus is highly contagious, its rate of spread and the resulting
high mortality rate affect the individuals’ mental health. This mental illness affect individuals at

several layers of the society, from patients who are infected of the said virus, health workers in

various sectors, patients with mental illness, and students. This pandemic makes the situation

worse for the students since they learn from home. A new national survey from the

Understanding Coronavirus in America, the study found out that while parents of K-to-12

students generally think that instruction has not gone back to pre-Covid-19 quality, they were

significantly more concern about Math than reading (Sawchuk & Sparks, 2020). Math is always

formally taught in school but because of the pandemic, students learn Math at home. Parents are

often less-equipped to help the students with this subject. Broader stress and trauma related to the

pandemic may worsen the existing Math anxiety in some students. Adding damage to their

learning, a mental crisis arises as many students have lost access to the services that were offered

by schools. During the pandemic’s education system, various issues and difficulties in teaching

and learning Mathematics arise. This is in agreement with the statement made by Allan (2013)

who said that ever since Mathematics was introduced in the curriculum, Mathematics has always

been viewed as a problem area for learners. When it comes to the anxiety level of the students,

Beilock (as cited in Harms, 2012) found out that students report worry and fear about doing

Mathematics as early as first grade. According to Lee-Chua (2012), how the students react

towards Mathematics has always been a great concern in the Philippines. This has been a great

challenge in the new normal since students ought to learn on their own with the guidance of the

strategies implemented by the teachers to provide education despite the situation. In line with

this, the researchers would like to determine the relation of Covid-19 and Math anxiety to the

Mathematics performance of the high school students since learners are to learn by themselves

guided by their parents at home. In relation to Mathematics performance, Covid-19 anxiety

affects Mathematics performance in a way that it can either increase or decrease the performance

level of the students.

Theoretical Background

The researcher anchored the study on the following theories as advocated by some theorists.

The Deficit Theory, advocated by Robinsten and Tannok (as cited in Carey et al., 2016),

expounded that learners with low initial Mathematics performance have higher chances of

experiencing Mathematics anxiety. Another is the Debilitating Anxiety Model advanced by

Lenons and Beilocks (as cited in Carey et al., 2016) puts forward the notion that the learners’

level of “Mathematics Performance” is a consequence of experiencing a certain “level of

Mathematics anxiety”.

Meanwhile, Reciprocal heory of Ma and Xu and Passolunghi (as cited in Carey et al., 2016)

combines the two above mentioned previous theories, suggesting that initial Mathematics

performance has some bearing on the increase of “Mathematics anxiety” among learners whose

“Mathematics anxiety” is influenced by the success or failure in learning Mathematics course or

subject.

Conceptual Framework

COVID-19 Math
Math Anxiety Performance
Anxiety
High Anxiety Satisfactory
Severe
Average Anxiety Very Good
Moderate
Low Anxiety Outstanding
Mild
Figure 1. COVID-19 and Math Anxiety: Its Relationship to Mathematics Performance of High

School.

The diagram above shows the relationships of COVID-19 and Math anxiety to the Mathematics

Performance of high school students.

Statement of the Problem

The main purpose of this study is to determine the influence of language of instruction to

the Mathematics performance of the Grade VIII Quezon students of Mindanao State University-

Buug Laboratory High School.

Specifically, this study endeavored to answer the following questions:

1. What is the level of COVID-19 anxiety?

2. What is the level of Math anxiety of the students?

3. What is the level of Mathematics performance of the students?

4. Is there a significant relationship between COVID-19 anxiety and Math anxiety?

5. Is there a significant relationship between COVID-19 anxiety and Math performance?

6. Is there a significant relationship between Math anxiety and Math performance?

7. Is there a significant relationship between Math and Covid-19 anxiety and Math

performance?

Hypothesis

Ho₁: There is no significant relationship between COVID-19 anxiety and Math anxiety.
 Ho₂: There is no significant relationship between COVID-19 anxiety and Math

performance.

Ho 3 : There is no significant relationship between Math anxiety and Math performance.

Ho 4 : There is no significant relationship between Covid-19 and Math anxiety and Math

performance.

Significance of the Study

This study provides information in determining the impact of COVID-19 on the anxiety

level of high school students and its significant relationship to Mathematics performance which

redound to the benefits of the following:

School Administrator: The result of this study will serve as the base line of school administrators

to improve programs and mode of learning during the pandemic and help them to find ways and

means to lessen the anxiety.

Teachers: The result of this study will help teachers evaluate their approach in terms of catering

the individual needs of the students and accomodate their queries to help them feel at ease while

learning at home.

Students: The result of this study will be a great help in providing knowledge to avoid Math

anxiety. It is hoped that through this research, they will become more aware about math anxiety

and the anxiety brought by COVID-19 and help them develop attitudes for better learning to

improve their performance despite the situation of the education for the school year 2020-2021.

Parents: The data gathered will encourage them to motivate their children in building strong

determination and perseverance to learn. It hope to give awareness about monitoring their

children's performance.
Scope and Limitation

This study will be limited only in determining the relationships of COVID-19 and Math

anxiety level to the Mathematics performance of Grade 7 Gold in Mindanao State University-

Buug Laboratory High School who are officially enrolled in the school year 2020-2021.

Definition of Terms

To have an easy understanding of the terms used in this study, the following words are

hereby defined operationally:

Anxiety is a painful or apprehensive uneasiness of mind.

Covid-19 anxiety refers to the physical and psychological disturbance of people due to

Covid-19. It is categorized into "severe", "moderate" and "mild".

Severe anxiety is intensely debilitating and its symptoms are frequent and persistent and

may include increased heart rate, feeling of panic, and social withdrawal. "Severe anxiety" has a

hypothetical weighted mean of 2.4 to 3.0 when they answer "always".

Moderate anxiety shows more frequent than those with mild anxiety but still have better

daily functioning than someone with severe anxiety or panic disorder. "Moderate anxiety" has a

hypothetical weighted mean of 1.7 to 2.3 when they answer "sometimes".

Mild anxiety symptoms may present as social anxiety or shyness and can be experienced in

early childhood to adulthood. "Mild anxiety" has a hypothetical weighted mean of 1.0 to 1.6

when they answer "never".

Mathematics is the science of numbers and their operations, interrations, combinations,

generalization, and configuration and their structures.

 Mathematics anxiety is defined as feeling of discomfort that one cannot perform efficiently

in situations that involves the use of mathematics. It is categorized as "high", "average", and

"low".

High anxiety has a hypothetical mean of 2.4 to 3.0 when they answer "always".

Average anxiety has a hypothetical weighted mean of 1.7 to 2.3 when they answer

"sometimes".

Low anxiety has a hypothetical weighted mean of 1.0 to 1.6 when they answer "never".

Mathematics performance measures the mathematical literacy of a learner to formulate,

employ, and interpret mathematics in a variety of context to describe, predict and explain

phenomena, and recognizing the role that mathematics plays in the world. It is categorized into

"outstanding", "very good", and "satisfactory".

Outstanding refers to the mathematics performance of the students and has an average

grade of 93 and above.

Very good refers to the mathematics performance of the students and has an average grade

of 84 to 92.

Satisfactory refers to the mathematics performance of the students and has an average

grade of 75 to 83.
 CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

This chapter presents the concept and theories that serve as a background of this research

that were seen to have relation to the direct bearing with this study.

Related Literature

Mathematics is an important subject in school curriculum every country. From a young age

children must learn the basic concepts of mathematics in order to function well in their everyday

life (Lebens, Graff & Meyer 2011). Mathematics has been taught so that children can understand

the numerical data presented to them, and able to perform simple and complex calculations day-

to-day encounters. It is also common belief among students that mathematics is a hard subject

and difficult to learn. In mathematics education, many researchers propose innovative ways of

teaching, linking concept and real life applications and motivating the students to take more

interest in the subject to overcome Mathematics.

 This what we called anxiety in mathematics actually springs out from negative experiences

in mathematics class. It was Hamza, (2013) who further describes it as a situation wherein

students feel frustration because of the lack of explanation of the sub-steps of mathematical

procedures. An additional burden came to be the sequential nature of mathematics instruction as

it becomes more difficult. Thus, the student does not immediately grasp the procedures or

concepts of being taught at a specific point in time (Brady & Bowd, 2005). Student anxiety in

response to mathematics is a significant concern for educators in terms of perception that high

anxiety will relate to avoidance of

mathematics (Anderson, 2007, p.93).

On the other hand, mathematics performance is the result of the interlinking process done in

a classroom instruction. Aside from the process, this is always affected by how mathematics is

percieved by the students and presented by the teacher . Most of the times, this is being

paralleled to how the teacher teach rather than how the students learn. This conflict is one of the

things that need to be addressed since mathematics performance is actually a product of both.

Ciubal-Fulgencio and Tan (2018), stated the study of retention by Akinsola and Popoola in 2004

that understanding, comprehension, and application of mathematical concepts are very important

factors of mathematics performance. It can be summarized into one word-retention. Retention is

not just recalling but retaining important information that is essential for the understanding of the

concepts to be discussed in the near future. However, it is only achieved if there is a formal

support provide outside the class.

Furthermore, in connection to the students' mathematics performance, Dalan (2004)

emphasized that achievement of the students plays an important role as a basis of developing

educational system specifically in the teaching and learning process. Academic performance now
is a criterion in identifying whether the instruction the teacher offers is considered of quality or

just mediocre.

In another perspective, parents and teachers with mathematics anxiety and of whom the

learners regularly communicate will tend to influence the increase of mathematics anxiety among

the learners and as their mathematics performance. Learners who have parents with high

mathematics anxiety tend to demonstrate a decreased math performance than those who have

parents with low math anxiety (Maloney et al., 2015; Smith, 2016, Intergenerational Effects of

Parents' Math Anxiety on Children's Math Achievement and Anxiety). On the other hand,

Mizala, Martinez and Martinez (2015) argued in their study entitled "Pre-service Elementary

School Teachers' Expectations About Student's Gender" that teachers who are highly math

anxious impose lesser demands among learners in terms of mathematics performance than do

teachers who are less math anxious. In relation to this, Stoehr (Mathematics Anxiety: One size

Does not Fit All, 2017) found that learners taught by teachers with high math anxiety tend to

develop math anxiety, which in return, results to them having dismal performance in math. The

literature is replete with recommendations concerning interventions to be employed and

approaches which schools and teachers should try applying to reduce mathematics anxiety. Geist

(2015) explained that teachers who are confident about their mathematics teaching ability tend to

employ instructional methods and strategies which are progressive and fit mathematics learning

situations. He also ends providing trainings to teachers that build their confidence in teaching

mathematics so as to improve learners' mathematics performance. Yet, at this point of time,

employing approaches to students seems to be challenging for the teachers since there is no face

to face encounter during the class. The students are only given modules and guide or time frame

for them to follow.

 A research done by Salari et al. shows that people who follow COVID-19 news the most,

experience more anxiety. Most of the news published on COVID-19 are distressing, and

sometimes news are associated with rumors, which is why anxiety levels rise when a person is

constantly exposed to COVID-19 news. Misinformation and fabricated reports about COVID-19

can exacerbate depressive symptoms in the general population. The latest and most accurate

information, such as the number of people who have improved and the process of medications

and vaccines, can reduce anxiety levels. In this regard, mental health professionals recommend

promoting healthy behaviors, avoiding exposure to negative news, and using alternative

communication methods such as social networks and digital communications platforms to

prevent social isolation.

Related Studies

A study conducted by Ventakesan in 2009 entitled "Mathematics Anxiety, Mathematics

Performance, and Academic Hardness in High School Students" stressed that there is a

significant negative correlation between Math performance. According to the results of the study,

the performance of the students in Mathematics can be influenced by Mathematics anxiety.

Another study done by Reali, F., et al. (2016) entitled "Examining the Link Between

Mathematics Anxiety and Mathematics Performance of the Students" resulted that there is a

strong negative correlation between Mathematics performance and Mathematics anxiety.

The study entitled "Influence of COVID-19 Confinement on Students' Performance in

Higher Education" conducted by Gonzales et al.,(2020) showed results that there are significant

differences when comparing students' performance in confinement with performance in previous

periods where activities where not limited to distant learning.

 CHAPTER 3

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY

This chapter consists of two sections, the discussion of research design and the research

methodology. The first section, which is the research design, gives feature of the locality of the

respondents, how they were drawn out from the whole population and what particular type of

design the researcher used. The second section which is the methodology, gives the salient

features of the research instruments and its validity and the statistical tools used in this study.

Research Design

This study used the descriptive method of research specifically cheklist designed that aimed

to determine the relationships of COVID-19 Anxiety and Math Anxiety level to the Mathematics

Performance of Grade VII Gold Students of Mindanao State University-Buug Laboratory High

School.
Locale of the Study

This study will be conducted in Mindanao State University-Buug Laboratory High School,

Datu Panas, Buug, Zamboanga Sibugay. It is one of the prestigious schools in the entire Sibugay

that offers a high quality of education.

Participants of the Study

The participants of this study are the Grade VII Gold students of Mindanao State

University-Buug Laboratory High School who are officially enrolled in the school year 2020-

2021 and currently taking Mathematics on their subjects.

Research Instrument

The instrument to be used by the researchers to gather data is questionnaire-checklist that

will be divided into two, namely: the COVID-19 anxiety and the Mathematics anxiety of the

respondents.

The following hypothetical weighted mean range is used according to the corressponding

mean score of data to be obtained. For COVID-19 anxiety; 3 - Severe anxiety, 2 - Moderate

anxiety, 1 - Mild anxiety. For Mathematics anxiety; 3 - High anxiety, 2 - Average anxiety, 1 -

Low anxiety.

Data Gathering Procedure

 In this, the researchers will personally send the letter asking for permissions from the

principal of Mindanao State University-Buug Laboratory High School to conduct the study and

gather data. Upon the approval, the researcher will send a letter to the adviser and the subject

teachers to inform them about the study to be conducted. The students will get the checklist

together with the letter of the parents’ consent on the day of the distribution of modules and

return it on the day of module retrieval.

The third grading grades of the participants in Mathematics will serve as their mathematics

performance and these will be made available by the subject teachers

Statistical Tool Used

After gathering the data, they will be analyzed suing the chi-square test with the following

formula below.

The Chi-square Test:

Σ ( Oi−Ei )
x2 =
Ei

where:

x2 = Chi-square computed value

O = Observed frequency

E = Expected frequency
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