Mathematics Anxiety and Mathematics Motivation among Students in the Faculty of Science of a Public University in Malaysia

Abstract

Mathematics anxiety and Mathematics motivation has been the target of most psychological and educational research in the past few years. Many studies showed that math anxiety and math motivation is an influence on students' achievement in school. In fact, the performance of students especially in Math are weak not only in secondary school but in university level as well, even though they have spent almost eleven years in formal education system. The aims of this study is to identify the differences on math anxiety and math motivation based on gender and to investigate the relationship between math anxiety and math motivation among students in the faculty of science of a public university in Malaysia. The sample consisted of 104 (23 male and 81 female) undergraduate students in the Faculty of Science. The instruments used to measure the math anxiety level and math motivation are Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale (MARS) and The Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ). The Alpha Cronbach scored based on the pilot test shown the score value of Math anxiety is 0.87 and Math Motivation 0.85. The data were analyzed using Pearson correlation and independent-samples ttests (SPSS 11.5). The results showed a significant moderate correlation between math anxiety and math motivation. It is also revealed that there were significant gender differences between male and female in math anxiety and math motivation. Hence, the findings may help in better understanding of mathematics-learning processes and provide important insights for intervention or remedial programs that targeting in improving mathematics-learning process of the students.

Mathematics Anxiety and the Influencing Factors among Junior High School Students in Yogyakarta, Indonesia / Matematička tjeskoba i faktori utjecaja među učenicima niže srednje škole u Yogyakarti u Indoneziji

“…On the other hand, low motivation is one of the characteristics of students who experience mathematical anxiety (Moenikia & Zahed-Babelan, 2010;Vitasari et al 2010;Zakariya, 2018), i.e. high academic motivation affects low mathematics anxiety of students (Ali & Hassan, 2019;Moenikia & Zahed-Babelan, 2010). Furthermore, Peters (2015) states the following as the characteristics of people who possess learning motivation: the desire to succeed, enthusiasm, a need for learning, having hopes and ideas of the future, getting awards in learning, doing interesting activities, and the existence of a conducive learning environment.…”

“…6 Low motivation becomes one of the characteristics of students who experience mathematics anxiety (Moenikia & Zahed-Babelan, 2010;Vitasari et al, 2010;Zakariya, 2018). 7 High academic motivation is connected with low mathematics anxiety of students (Ali & Hassan, 2019;Moenikia & Zahed-Babelan, 2010).…”

Exploring the interaction between learning styles and mathematics anxiety among secondary school students: A correlational study in southern Malaysia

“…Unfortunately, not all students can perform well in mathematics (Ali & Hassan, 2019). As far as performance is concerned, Malaysia's students' results from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in mathematics are still unsatisfactory (Kong & Matore, 2022).…”

“…In Malaysia, accessible empirical findings have shown a trend of focus on the adult perspectives or higher education level of mathematics anxiety (Ali & Hassan, 2019;Gholami, Ayub, Yunus & Kamarudin, 2021;Seng, 2015;Siaw, Shim, Azizan & Shaipullah, 2020). On the other hand, Ramirez, Chang, Maloney, Levine and Beilock (2016) indicated that anxiety first emerges from the primary and secondary levels of schooling and can be correlated with students' mathematics achievement.…”

The effect of teaching using multimedia on mathematical anxiety and motivation

“…These factors include educational methods, genetics, environmental and social factors, such as teachers, math classroom (Ramirez et al, 2018), parents, and gender (Ramirez et al, 2018;Foley et al, 2017). Ali and Hassan (2019) state that teaching and learning mathematics is a complex process and requires the creation of a mentally healthy environment to do math; a space that fosters mathematical thinking skills and meaningful understanding of mathematical concepts .To develop such an environment, in addition to reducing anxiety, other emotional factors must be considered as well. One of the most important factors is to create interest and motivation in learners (Ali & Hassan, 2019).…”