SYNTHESIS OF THE STATE OF THE ART

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Change the Equation, Andamon (2015), and Kolb (2017) have similarities in their findings on
why most people hate mathematics. In their respective researches they found that people stay
away from mathematics because of its difficulty and the work that they must put in just to solve
one problem. This kind of thinking creates a negative attitude towards the subject.
Yang (2014), Ashcraft and Faust (2000), Tobias (1978), Sheffield and Hunt (2006) conveyed
in their research that people who experiences math anxiety can affect their problem-solving skills
like manipulation of numbers negatively that could lead to bad academic performance and
further loss of self-confidence in themselves. The bad experiences they accumulate could lead to
inferiority-complex against other people that could ultimately turn them away from any math
subjects or courses.
Boaler (2012), Ruef (2018), Estonanto (2017), Curtain-Philips all points to the teaching
strategy being used by the teachers that disregard the skill level and uniqueness of every student
in tackling mathematical problems resulting to loss of focus and unwanted failures of the
students. This strategy induce pressure to the students and creates an environment of fear-
stimulating academic setting that result into unconducive learning.
Hembree (1990), Harper and Dane (1998), and Fotoples (2000) points out to personality
factors, stress, and dyslexia as contributors to the math anxiety of a person.
Kulpa (2007), and Willis (2010) both state that math anxiety and skill level of the teacher
affects their students greatly that could lead to undeveloped higher-order thinking skills.
Armin Luistro, Wolf and Burkman (2000) focused on the nutrition factors of the students that
results to slow recollection of lessons or non-at all, low academic performance, and loss of
critical thinking skill instead of blaming the anxiety factor of the students.
Senator Angara, as cited by Tan and Guita (2018) said that one of the major causes of a
country's poverty is incompetence and lack of skills in mathematics as well as in the science and
technology.

REVIEW OF RELATED STUDIES

Zakaria and Nordin (2007), Zhang, Zhao and Ping Kong (2019), Wahid, Yusof and Razak
(2013), and Watts, Duncan, Siegler, and Davis-Kean (2014) got similar results in their
findings of the relation between math anxiety and achievements of the students. They found that
the higher the math anxiety of a student results to a lower performance compared to a student
with a low level of math anxiety. Also, they identified other factors affecting math anxiety such
as emotions assessment, environment, and grade level.
Laguador (2013) states that the relationship between negative math anxiety-performance also
manifest between engineering student more toward the subjects rather than the engineering
program itself.
Signh and Jha (2013), Lee, Ashford and Jamieson (1993) similarly found that an optimistic
student gets more meaningful learning and the transfer of knowledge becomes more natural and
spontaneous resulting to academic achievements.
Vitasari, Herawan, Wahab, Othman and Sinnadurai (2010) investigated five dimensions of
math anxiety resulting to four out of the five dimensions to be contributors to the development
and worsening of math anxiety. The worse the performance of a student the higher the level of
math anxiety he/she gets.
Villanueva as cited by Estonanto (2017) contradicts the above-mentioned studies claiming that
there is no connection between student’s math performance and their study habits and attitudes.
Instead saying that the students age, family income, ordinal position in the family, and the
educational attainment of the parents is what affects the student’s performance.