II.

Literature Review

Related Literature

Article 1: How to Overcome Math Anxiety, Deb Russel (March 20, 2019)

One of the ways to overcome Math anxiety is having positive attitude and confidence.

Also, if a student does not understand the lesson in Math, he should ask questions to his teacher

or tutor to further understand it. They can also ask for illustrations and demonstrations to provide

maximum retention. A student should not settle for anything less during instructions. Taking

good notes and practicing regularly the lessons in Math can help the student to improve his or her

Math skills and to prevent Math anxiety. Lastly, the students should be persistent and not be

bothered in making mistakes because it is inevitable to all (Russel, 2019).

It is related to our topic because this article tackles about how to overcome Math anxiety.

It also shows the common and effective ways to overcome this disease and that determination for

cure is an absolute necessity.

Article 2: Don’t Let Math Stress You Out, Evelyn Lamb (January 5, 2017)

According to Evelyn Lamb (2017) Math Anxiety affects people of all ages. It can prompt

horrible showing in Math classes. All through life, this stress can disrupt the general flow of

mastering skills or projects in a host of areas that rely on computations. But the researchers are

finding ways people can cope with this stress. In this article, it also tackles why Math is different

in all subjects. It was said that even among academic subjects, researchers note that when it

comes to anxiety, Math seems special. Ways on how to reduce Math anxiety was also tackled and

given by the author to help people with this kind of anxiety. They also gave some ways on how to

manage stress and what can parents and teachers do for this illness.
 This article is relevant to our topic because this article shows how to overcome Math

anxiety through their confidence. It is also stated in the article that the students should focus on

answering Math problems on tasks to complete their difficulties successfully.

Article 3: How to Overcome Math Anxiety, David Ludden (March 4, 2017)

One with Math anxiety can lead to nervousness when doing Math and this nervousness

can lead to Math anxiety. Still, one who excels at Math can still have Math anxiety. A researcher

had studied that China topped in Math even though the citizens there have higher level of Math

anxiety than in other countries. It is also said that even as a kid Math anxiety can also developed.

There was an experiment on elementary students about Math. It is whether they have or not this

kid is having trouble with Math, have Math anxiety. Surprisingly, almost half of them have

(Ludden, 2017).

This article is related to our topic because it shows how Math anxiety can affect any

people, even those who excel at Math. This illness can also affects young people so it should be

detected sooner for earlier cure.

Related Studies

Study 1: Student Strategies for Overcoming Math Anxiety

Marshall, E., Mann, V., Wilson, D., and Staddon, R. (2017)

“Students Strategies for Overcoming Math Anxiety” explains the experience of those

people who has Math Anxiety. Math Anxiety is an acquired anxiety which can have a big impact

on learning but is it treatable. Mathematical resilience is a term used to describe a positive stance

towards mathematics where students overcome their barriers to learning. In this study, they gave
a useful framework for understanding different learning experiences and the feelings associated

with each. This is called the Growth Zone Model which has three zones: Comfort Zone, Growth

Zone, and Anxiety Zone. Comfort zone activities are activities where you feel confident about

your abilities and do not require help, while Growth zone is where new learning happens, you

may make mistakes and you will need resources and/or help from others and if you are

challenged beyond your current level of resilience you may find yourself in the anxiety zone.

They also gave for factors for developing mathematical resilience and also tip for exams

(Marshall, E. et al., 2017).

This study is relevant to our topic because it discussed what Math Anxiety is and gave

different ways on how to develop mathematical resilience.

Study 2: Spotlight on Math Anxiety

Silke Luttenberger, Sigrid Wimmer, and Manuela Paechter (August 8, 2018)

This study states of how Math Anxiety differs with other types of anxiety. It also talks

about the countermeasures on how to prevent this illness and the ways for it to be cured. The

ratio and percentage of people with this kind of disease is also tackled as well as to the effects if

someone is diagnosed with Math Anxiety. There are also measurements of how prone you are

and how great this anxiety has been to someone. Also having Math Anxiety can make everyday

tasks harder for mathematics is always handled with everyday uses. This implies that when

someone is having a difficult time to deal with numbers and the fundamental operations, one

should be aware that he or she may have Math Anxiety and should be cured if there is as soon as

possible. The stress of the test of math and doing homework in algebra should be noticed right

away and be served with effective medication (Luttenberger, S. et al., 2018).

 This study is relevant to our topic for it directly tackles the nature, cause, effects and cure

of Math Anxiety. It shows clear and sufficient information of this anxiety and its difference to

other illnesses.

Study 3: Strategies for Reducing Math Anxiety

Christie Blazer (September 2011)

Math Anxiety is a serious obstacle for many children across all grade levels. They

believed that implementation of strategies to prevent or reduce Math Anxiety will improve Math

achievement for many students. This study has also found that Math Anxiety is more common in

girls, especially at the middle and senior high school levels. Researchers agree that Math teachers

are one of the factors on why students have this anxiety, so they gave us Teacher Strategies for

Reducing Student’s Math Anxiety like relating math to real life and avoiding the student to get in

embarrassing situations. Also, they find out that parents have strong influence on the children’s

attitudes toward math so they provided strategies for the parents to help prevent their children’s

Math Anxiety like having realistic expectations and providing support and encouragement.

Lastly, researchers suggested several student strategies to overcome Math Anxiety that is asking

for help and practicing Math everyday (Blazer, 2011).

This is absolutely relevant to our topic because of the reason about it states the effective

ways to cure Math Anxiety. It tackles to whom this anxiety is often developed and how to stop

the further graveness of this illness. Lastly, this study proves that Math Anxiety can be put into a

stop with the proper ways.

IV. Results
 Being convinced to research about Math Anxiety, we did the following steps in order to

do it successfully and efficiently. First, we research some information about the said illness to

have a background knowledge about it. After that, we formulated questions to make a survey.

This survey questions is thought thoroughly and made sure it is relative to the topic. With the set

of questions made, we arranged them in perfect order and chose the perfect people to interview

and asked them the formulated questions. Afterwards, we recorded what they said via cellphones

and we list what they said. Then, we tallied the answers of our interviewees and made sure that

their answers are appropriate and clear. Subsequently, we made sure the tallied answers are exact

in numbers by counting if it is all in all 12 because our total asserters are also 12. Finally, we

made conclusions for the research by gathering and summarizing their answers in a concise and

comprehensible manner.

1. Do you have hard times in solving Math problems?

Out of twelve respondents, all of them answered that they do have hard times in solving

math problems.

2. What are the effects of Math anxiety to your daily livelihood?

Out of twelve respondents, three of them get nervous at Math time and two of them are

afraid to get mistakes and be embarrassed. Another two stresses out for the day when they fail on

tests. A pair of respondents also stated that it affects their academic grade. Speeding up heartbeat

with dizziness is also a reason for a respondent and another one have a hard time in terms of

money. Lastly, one of them said that he is not affected by Math anxiety.
 3. What are the factors that contribute to your Math anxiety?

a) in terms of peers?

Nine out of twelve students responded that having friends that are great at Math and them

not being that great contribute to their Math anxiety. The remaining three said that peers are not

one of the factors.

b) in terms of previous experiences in Math?

Both the reason of not having the chance to answer a certain question of a teacher and the

reason, failing in tests is responded by four people summing up to eight respondents in total.

Another respondent got a line of seven while the other one got a strict teacher in the past. Also,

one of our interviewee didn’t explicitly told the experience and one said he didn’t have any

previous experience.

c) in terms of method of teaching?

Seven respondents said that the teacher’s method in teaching doesn’t contribute to their

Math anxiety while the other five said it does. With these five respondents, four reasoned it to be

the unclear explanations of the teacher while the other one said because he was always scolded.

d) in terms of high expectations of parents?

Ten stated that their parents don’t have high expectations for them while the other two do

have.

4. Have you overcome Math anxiety or are you still suffering from it? How long did/are

you suffer/suffering from it?

 Out of twelve respondents, seven of them are still suffering, three are slightly overcoming

Math anxiety and two have already overcome it.

Of all of them, two stated that they suffered for eight years and another two for two years.

It pair of respondents didn’t explicitly stated the extent of year and the remaining each one of

them experienced five years, six years, 9 years and 11 years.

5. How did you solve Math anxiety? How are you dealing with Math anxiety?

a) through peers?

Out of twelve respondents, ten of them said that they seek help to their friends making

peers a huge factor to help them get over Math anxiety while the other two assenter said their

peers doesn’t contribute at all.

b) through tutorials?

Seven testees responded that they watch tutorial when they doesn’t understand a math

topic. Five of the seven testees specified that they watch it on Youtube. The remaining five

interviewee said that they do not watch any tutorials.

c) through personal tutors?

All of our respondents do not have any personal tutor to help them cope with Math

anxiety.

d) other specified reasons

Out of twelve respondents, only nine of them didn’t state a specified reason on how they

deal with Math anxiety while the remaining three did of these three answerer, one said that he

practice solving math problems at home as well as in school while on the other hand, another
interviewee told us that he seek help with his brother which is an engineer, the last respondent

said that his other way of how to deal with Math anxiety is through praying.

Overcoming Math Anxiety

Castillo, Albert Martin B.

Lumbria, Louel A.

Chavez, Katrina M.

Rosita, Debbie Kate Q.