ST.

MARY’S COLLEGE OF MARINDUQUE

Isok I, Boac, Marinduque

Math Anxiety Effects to Senior High School STEM and ABM students

of

SMCM Mathematical Learning

In partial Fulfillment of the Requirements in

Practical Research

By:
Kathleen L. Ejanda
Kian Jessie Almonte
Irish Angela D.C. Sosa
John Francis Flores
Gayle Clariz Livelo

March 2022
 ST. MARY’S COLLEGE OF MARINDUQUE
Isok I, Boac, Marinduque

Abstract

The completion of this research became possible due to the assistance and participation of every

member of the research groups.

To the one behind this study, the proponents’ research adviser, Ms. Ivy Lane Patyag for the time

and constant guidance and support to the researchers during the span of this research.

Their contributions and efforts are very much appreciated.

The researchers would like to thank the respondents from ABM and STEM for the time they

gave to participate in the study’s survey.

Also, the researchers would like to thank God for making this research possible.

Background of the Study

CHAPTER I

Introduction

Math Anxiety Effects to Senior High School STEM and ABM students of SMCM Mathematical

Learning

Mathematics is one of the branches of knowledge that studies the quantity, structure, space and

problem solving that requires skills in calculations and critical thinking (Kusmaryono, Gufron, &

Rusdiantoro, 2020). In general, mathematics plays an important role in every aspect of life, but

the main contribution of mathematics is in the field of education. Through the perspective of

education globally, mathematics is perceived as one of the most difficult subjects to learn due to

its complexity and abstract nature (Azizah & Suhendra, 2020; Haase, Guimarães, & Wood,

2019). Furthermore, the learning process that is interconnected and requires mastery
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comprehension from the previous topics causes students to struggle throughout mathematics

lesson.

In the context of education, common issues underpinning mathematics learning difficulties are

students’ lack of conceptual understanding and poor mathematics. As a result, students tend to be

scared, worried and feel less interested to learn mathematics in depth. However, since

mathematics is one of the key elements of success in disciplines ranging from science,

technology to economics, excellent qualifications are necessary for students to pursue

mathematics at higher level. Therefore, the existing curriculum needs to be reviewed and

evaluated constantly to improve the quality of education and produce a world-class mathematics

education system.

Math anxiety is a real problem facing students and teachers today. The mathematics teacher

especially needs to understand the causes and effects of math anxiety as well as ways to help

students overcome it. There are many symptoms of math anxiety including unwillingness to

attempt mathematics problems, a fear of taking advanced mathematics classes, and being

unusually nervous when in mathematics class. Math anxiety hinders students' working memory

(Perina, 2002). Math anxiety can affect students at all stages of education, from elementary

school to university. In a sample of first-grade pupils, negative responses and numerical

confidence were found to be the most important characteristics of math fear. Similar findings

were found at the postsecondary level in a variety of subjects, including health care.
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Isok I, Boac, Marinduque

Mathematical Learning is defined as the acquisition of new knowledge, skills, and affects that

are related to mathematics (Verschaffel & Dooren, 2012). In this study, mathematical learning

refers to the acquired knowledge and skills of the students in mathematics and is expressed in

terms of mathematical performance. It is also the dependent variable of the study.

Statement of the Problem

 The extent of exposure of the respondents to math anxiety will be determined in this

study.

 The proponents will highlight the various causes of math anxiety among the participants

in the study.

 Finally, the researchers looked into the link between math anxiety and the respondents'

ability to learn math.

Significance of the study

This study aims to clarify the relationship between math anxiety and students'

mathematical learning. The researchers, students, mathematics teachers, and future researchers

will all benefit from this study.

The researchers had the necessary data to produce an effective output that could inform

the public about the findings of the research because this study identifies the level of exposure of

the respondents to math anxiety, as well as the causes and effects of math anxiety on the students'

mathematical learning.
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Students that are apprehensive about learning mathematics can benefit from this

research. Through the output that the researchers created, the findings of the research will assist

students’ better grasp this phenomenon. Their increased understanding of math anxiety may

enable them to combat its consequences by self-imposed and teacher-assisted actions.

Similarly, mathematics teachers will benefit from the findings of the study. As a result

of the researchers' discovery of the harmful impacts of math anxiety on students' mathematical

learning, a large number of mathematics teachers might be educated about the causes of math

anxiety and thereby avoid it. The findings of this study may also help mathematics teachers

improve their teaching approaches.

Finally, because of the significance of this study to the broader understanding of math

anxiety, future researchers investigating the same problem will find this research quite useful.

This study may serve as a foundation for their future work, and the reference section, which

includes all of the relevant papers and literature, will make their research easier.

Target Beneficiaries of the Research result

 Teachers

 Students

 Future Researchers

Scope and limitations

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The scope of the study only focused on identifying the different causes of math anxiety

and its effect to students’ mathematical learning. The study's participants were STEM and ABM

students in Senior High School.

The research was limited to determining the impact of math anxiety on Senior High

School students' mathematics learning. Other characteristics that may influence a student's

mathematics learning, such as IQ, apprehension, and so on, were ignored by the researchers.

These external variables, on the other hand, may be included if they are identified as a cause of

math anxiety.

Definition of terms

Anxiety is a feeling of fear, dread, and uneasiness. It might cause you to sweat, feel

restless and tense, and have a rapid heartbeat. It can be a normal reaction to stress.

Learning is a process that leads to change, which occurs as a result of experience and

increases the potential for improved performance and future learning (Ambrose et al, 2010)

Mathematics the group of sciences (including arithmetic, geometry, algebra, calculus,

etc.) dealing with quantities, magnitudes, and forms, and their relationships, attributes, etc., by

the use of numbers and symbols.

Math Anxiety is defined as a feeling of tension and apprehension that interferes with

math's performance ability, the manipulation of numbers and the solving of mathematical

problems in a wide variety of ordinary life and academic situations.

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Mathematical Learning is defined as the acquisition of new knowledge, skills, and

affects that are related to quantity, space, and structure. The ability to learn mathematics is

possessed by humans and to some extent also by some animals and machines.

CHAPTER II

Review of Related Literature

This section discusses the literature that are connected to the study entitled “Math

Anxiety Effects to Senior High School STEM and ABM students of SMCM Mathematical

Learning”

Foreign Literature

Math anxiety has been identified as a negative emotion or feeling in several previous

research.

According to Wondimu et al. (2012) showed that when students are working on something

connected to mathematics, they experience uneasy feelings such as terror, cluelessness, and

helplessness, which affects their arithmetic performance and raises their anxiety. They also

discovered a link between mathematical self-concept and mathematical anxiety.

Similar study shows this kind of effects on students. According to Adeyemy (2015)

discussed several effects of mathematics anxiety such as: lack of confidence in doing
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mathematics, lack of courage to express their feelings about mathematics to their teachers,

negative attitude towards mathematics, and avoidance of mathematics courses.

The findings of Weale (2019), Poor grades, test pressures, peer bullying, and a confused

mix of instructional techniques were all common anxiety triggers. Mathematics anxiety affects

students causing fear, fury, and despair, as well as physical symptoms and classroom behavior

difficulties.

The results of Kargar, Tarmizi, & Bayat (2010) revealed that, there was a negative

correlation between mathematics anxiety and mathematics attitude. After seeing that pupils with

positive attitudes are more motivated to study the lesson than those with negative attitudes,

Kargar, Tarmizi, and Bayat (2010) came to this conclusion. Zhang et. al, (2019) explained that

math anxiety (MA) decreases the math performance of students. However, it remains unclear

what factors moderate this relationship. The results indicated a strong negative math anxiety-

performance link. Furthermore, regarding the analysis of moderator variables, this negative link

was stronger in the studies that involved Asian students, but the link was the weakest in the

studies that involved European students. Moreover, this negative link was stronger in the studies

within a senior high school group, whereas it was the weakest in the studies within an elementary

group. Finally, this negative link was strongest among studies that used a custom test and studies

that assessed problem-solving skills. Potential explanations and implications for research and

practice are discussed.

On the same note, according to Adeyemi (2015), the pupils' fear about mathematics had

a good influence on them because they made steps to avoid having such negative experiences as
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they had in past mathematics classes. According to one student, experiencing mathematics

anxiety taught them that "there are students that suffer anxiety with mathematics" whether they

express it or not. This knowledge caused the students to teach mathematics to their peers in a

unique way, bypassing standard approaches and instead employing comedy, a happy classroom

environment, and disclosing his prior mathematical anxieties to his students.

According to Laguador (2013), “Math professors should innovate the teaching of

Mathematics to enhance the intrinsic motivation. Students must always be motivated by their

teachers to have regular consultation that needs more assistance and guidance.”

In addition to this, male students should be given enough priority to make them interested and

motivated to learn mathematics.

Local Literature

According to Liebert & Morris (1967); Affective anxiety is concerned with the

emotional side of anxiety, such as dread, fear, and tension, whereas cognitive anxiety is

concerned with the worry part of anxiety. Negative expectations and ideas that may arise as a

result of conditions that induce anxiety are examples of these worry features. The Math Anxiety

Rating Scale developed by Draper, Liwanag, Serafico, &Villafuerte (N.D.) can be utilized in the

present study to satisfy the first objective of the current research which aims to identify the level

of exposure of the respondents to math anxiety.

Wahid et. al (2013) stated that, mathematical anxiety is situations that happen to some

people when facing a mathematical problem. Good feeling towards mathematics brings good
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perception about mathematics, and vice versa. Emotions play the most important part in this

situation.

The majority of students are frustrated or uninterested in maths. For some pupils, math

might be tedious, dull, or incomprehensible. However, for some children, the prospect of solving

a math problem triggers strong negative feelings that might lead to anxiety or melancholy. Such

behaviors can sabotage a student's ability to solve any type of arithmetic problem, as well as

other school-related issues. Math anxiety occurs when a person's uneasiness with math escalates

into fear, and this dread has an impact on their academic performance (Sanchez, 2019).

While there is still more work to be done in order to acquire a thorough knowledge of

math anxiety, knowing where it comes from, how it connects to math performance, and who it is

most likely to effect can help us begin to think about how to treat it (Beilock & Willingham,

2014).

According to a study by Futalan and Mamhot (2018), students' mathematics anxiety

increases when they meet new and bulky concepts. When new concepts were introduced in

Grade 6 that were not sufficiently taught in Grade 5, this situation occurred. Increased anxiety in

Grade 8 is due to a concentration of too many challenging topics that were not adequately

covered in earlier grade levels. Under the new DepEd K to 10 Curriculum, their research looked

into the relationship between students' workload and mathematical anxiety.

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Mathematical anxiety is defined as a "fear of mathematics" or a "negative attitude" toward

learning mathematics in simple terms (Geist, 2010).

Theoretical Framework of the study

According to the Deficit Theory, those who start off with poor arithmetic ability are

more prone to develop math anxiety. Children with mathematical learning difficulties, such as

developmental dyscalculia (which causes poor arithmetic performance), have higher levels of

math anxiety than children without such disabilities, according to studies. Reduced mathematics

performance is frequently connected with increased mathematics anxiety in the following school

year, according to longitudinal research (studies that track students over a longer period of their

development than most studies, which simply present a snapshot at a specific time point).

BOOK ELLER REBECA G “Johnny Can’t talk, either” page 670-74

The Data supporting the Reciprocal Theory suggests that each of the two hypothesis

suggests that both may play a role in the relationship between anxiety and math success. That is,

math anxiety may result in bad performance, and poor performance may result in math anxiety.

Although few studies have shown specific evidence of a bidirectional relationship, this could be

due to the fact that different types of research favor one of the two directions. Experiments that

modify a person's math anxiety (in the short term) and see if it impacts their performance are the

most common way to find the influence of math anxiety on performance. Longitudinal (long-

term) research, on the other hand, reveal that success has a less impact on possible mathematical

anxiety.
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CHAPTER 3

Research Design and Methodology

This chapter presents the research design and methodology employed by the researchers

in conducting the study which also includes the research locale, sample and population, as well

as the data gathering instrument and the data gathering procedure.

Research Design

In order to know the Math Anxiety Effects to Senior High School STEM and ABM

students of SMCM Mathematical Learning, descriptive survey method is used as a main tool in

gathering data for the study. According to Williams (2007) descriptive research is a research

method that can determine the situation in current phenomenon.

This study is a Quantitative Research and employed a descriptive design. The researchers

utilized the descriptive method because it primarily determined the exact perception of the

respondents regarding the Math Anxiety Effects to Senior High School STEM and ABM

students of SMCM Mathematical Learning.

Research Locale

This study was conducted at St. Mary’s College of Marinduque (formerly Immaculate

Conception College), it is a private, Catholic institution under the Religious of the Virgin Mary

(RVM). This school comprises Senior High School and offers three (3) academic tracks which

are the Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), Accountancy Business and
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Management (ABM) and Humanities and Social Sciences track. It is located at Isok, Boac,

Marinduque.

Source: Google Maps

Research Population and Sample

The participants in this study are Grade 12 Senior High School students, specifically the

STEM and ABM strand as respondents in this study. The target respondents in Accountancy

Business and Management (ABM) strand are twenty-nine (29) students and for forty-six (46)

students in Science Technology and Mathematics (STEM) strand.

Grade level and Population Percentage Sample Size

Strand (%)

Grade 12 – STEM 46 61.33 35

Grade 12 – ABM 29 38.66 15

Total 75 100.00 50
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Data Gathering Instrument

The researchers will provide survey questionnaire to collect the information needed for

the development of the study. The questions that will be asked concerned the different sub-

problems of this study namely:

Questionnaire will be given a choices of: YES, NO or MAYBE

 Do you experience incomprehension in your mathematics subject?

 Are you having a hard time memorizing mathematical formulas?

 Are you confident in answering math questions?

 Do you experience mathematics anxiety?

 Is there time that you get blank or mental blocked at times you get called in a recitation?

 Do you panic when you see math equations?

 Do you feel anxious when your classmates/friends get to ask you about your answer in

your math assignment?

 Do you feel ashamed to share your answers in math class?

 Are there times that you exclude your math subjects as priority because you can’t

understand anything?

Data Gathering Procedure

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After the research adviser approved the self-made questions for the survey questionnaire, the

researchers administered them to the selected respondents. The respondents will be given a

survey question for them to answer which is only answerable by yes, no and maybe. The

researchers then will proceed to the collection of the questionnaire from their respondents.

Finally, the gathered data were ready to be analyzed and concluded by the researchers.

Participants must complete the given questionnaire so that the researchers will take time to tally

the results.

References:

-Adeyemi, A. (2015). Investigating and Overcoming Mathematics Anxiety in In-service

Elementary School Teachers. Retrieved from https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?

article=6462&context=etd

-V PISA 2015 Results (Volume III): Students' Well-Being. (2017). Retrieved from

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.oecd.org/pisa/PISA-

2015-Results-Students-Well-being-Volume-III-

Overview.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiXyLLyuoLnAhW3zDgGHcReCSMQFjAEegQIBhAI&usg=AO

vVaw2l3NPQ9rHodCG3A_FanyXR

-Kargar, M., Tarmizi, R. A., & Bayat, S. (2010). Relationship between Mathematical

Thinking, Mathematics Anxiety and Mathematics Attitudes among University Students. Procedia

- Social and Behavioral Sciences, 8, 537–542. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.12.074. Retrieved from

https://sci-hub.tw/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042810021798
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-Verschaffel, L., Dooren, W. V., & Smedt, B. D. (1970, January 1). Mathematical Learning.

Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-1-4419-1428-

6_448#howtocite

-Verschaffel, L., Dooren, W. V., & Smedt, B. D. (1970, January 1). Mathematical Learning.

Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-1-4419-1428-

6_448#howtocite

-Wang, Z., Lukowski, S. L., Hart, S. A., Lyons, I. M., Thompson, L. A., Kovas, Y., … Petrill, S.

A. (2015). Is Math Anxiety Always Bad for Math Learning? The Role of Math Motivation.

Psychological Science, 26(12), 1863–1876. doi:10.1177/0956797615602471. Retrieved from

https://sci-hub.tw/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797615602471

-Weale, S. (2019, March 14). 'Maths anxiety' causing fear and despair in children as young as

six. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/mar/14/maths-anxiety-

causing-fear-and-despair-in-children-as-young-as-six

-Zhang, Jing, Zhao, Nan, Kong, & Ping, Q. (2019, June 26). The Relationship Between Math

Anxiety and Math Performance: A Meta-Analytic Investigation. Retrieved from

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01613/full

-Liwanag, A. (n.d.). Development of Math Anxiety Rating Scale. Retrieved from

https://www.academia.edu/13543157/Development_of_Math_Anxiety_Rating_Scale

-Luttenberger, S., Wimmer, S., & Paechter, M. (2018). Spotlight on math anxiety. Retrieved

from https://search.proquest.com/pqrl/docview/2229429301/552719D532774168PQ/2?

accountid=146485
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CHAPTER IV

Presentation Analysis and Interpretation of Data

CHAPTER V
Summary
Conclusion
Suggestion
Recommendation

CURICULUM VITAE