The impact of mathematics anxiety on self-regulated learning and mathematical literacy

Abstract

Self-regulated learning has been shown to have a positive and long-lasting impact on students’ academic development, employability and career progression. Emotions, motivation and metacognition play an important role in students’ ability to monitor and regulate their learning, particularly when studying and engaging with Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics content. In this study, we investigated motivational, emotional and cognitive factors involved in self-regulated learning and their role in mathematics learning. Specifically, we analysed the impact of mathematics anxiety and self-regulated learning on mathematical literacy using the Australian subset of Programme for International Student Assessment 2012. Mathematics anxiety is a barrier to mathematical learning and is thought to hinder students’ engagement and the efficiency of their metacognitive processes. Using structural equation modelling, we showed that instrumental motivation and self-concept affect mathematics anxiety, which in turn negatively impacts mathematical literacy by affecting perseverance and self-efficacy. We consider the practical implications of our results and discuss how interventions to reduce students’ mathematics anxiety will allow for the development and/or improvement of self-regulated learning skills in mathematics.

The Need to Develop an Individualized Intervention for Mathematics Anxiety

“…It is unclear how negative mathematics beliefs could be related to mathematics anxiety and mathematics performance. However, one explanation could be that metacognitive processes mediate the relationship between negative mathematics beliefs and mathematics performance, as reported in several studies (for discussion see Legg and Locker Jr, 2009;Filippello et al, 2016;Buzzai et al, 2020;Gabriel et al, 2020). Future research should investigate the exact mechanism of how beliefs, metacognition, and mathematics performance interact.…”

Maths Anxiety – And How to Overcome it

“…Florence Gabriel shares the latest thinking on dealing with "maths anxiety" Education where we investigated the ways in which maths anxiety impacts mathematical achievement in high-school students. 5 We analysed data from the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment and looked at the responses of more than 4,000 Australian 15-year-old students. Our study showed that higher levels of maths anxiety are associated with lower levels of instrumental motivation (the degree to which students find mathematics relevant), self-concept (students' beliefs in their own abilities in mathematics), perseverance (students' willingness to keep working on difficult problems), and selfefficacy (students' beliefs about their ability to solve specific maths problems).…”

Development Of Mathematics Teaching Materials Oriented Mathematic Literation And Life Enterpreneurship

“…Using logical reasoning means that these students are able to choose the right strategy in solving a problem. Therefore, this ability becomes a point in developing students' abilities in the 21st century as a provision for solving problems in everyday life (Gabriel et al, 2020;Ülger et al, 2020).…”