CMU

Enrichment Learning Activity

CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

This study includes some different issues related to the study of mathematical anxiety. This

review of literature review will follow a specific path designed to address these issues as they

occur throughout the study.

LOCAL LITERATURE

Alana E. Foley and Sonia Guerriero (2017) found a correlation between math anxiety and poor

performance. According to an article that was published in the journal Current Directions in

Psychological Science, this appears to be true in all nations. Of course, math is not the only

subject where anxiety and performance are negatively correlated. For example, somatic and

cognitive anxiety in martial arts can create roughly 80% discrimination between winners and

losers. A competent karate instructor, like the one my children have, understands how crucial it

is to give martial arts students confidence. After all, losing a game might be as simple as

freezing or closing one's eyes. A master does this best by setting a good, growth-oriented

example. Interestingly, research strongly supports a link between adult role models and

children's math anxiety and math achievement. Children whose parents are anxious about math

are prone to have math anxiety, and students who are taught by teachers who struggle with math

perform worse academically.

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Many students still think of mathematics as being among the most difficult courses they have

ever studied. According to the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)

results, reading, science, and maths performance in the Philippines was the worst. The PISA

results indicate that more needs to be done right away to raise the standard of education in the

nation, particularly in mathematics. In the Philippines and other countries, improving

mathematics education is one of the main objectives of the educational system. The Philippines'

mathematics curriculum strives to give students tools for understanding the world, a method of

communication, and a pathway to the country's advancement (SEI-DOST & MATHTED,

2011). With the new curriculum in the country for mathematics education in basic education (K-

12 Curriculum), students are expected to be more prepared for learning mathematics in higher

education. However, mathematics education in the previous curriculum has focused more on

efficient computation and not too much on the understanding of concepts, problem-solving, and

application of mathematics in real-life situations. To realize the needed reforms in mathematics

education, mathematics educators should address some emerging problems which may hinder

students to perform well in mathematics. Mathematics is often associated with failure and

frustration. Students’ prior negative experiences in math classrooms may have influenced their

conceptions of mathematics. Also, this may have caused them to have a lack of interest in the

subject. Their negative beliefs and attitudes towards mathematics brought about by how they

conceive it can affect their performance.

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In accordance with Bantiding, H. (2005), math anxiety is real and can happen to anyone at any

age regardless of his mathematical ability. Since mathematics is perhaps the most abstract

academic subject, many students dislike and avoid it. She observes that this math avoidance can

turn into a severe case of math anxiety that, in many cases, has been associated with temporary

memory impairment and loss of self-confidence, especially during tests or other mathematical

tasks. In a 2005 study, she reports that even the best mathematicians are not exempt from bouts

of math anxiety. Because math anxiety demonstrates a stubborn impediment in the development

of mastery and performance in tasks that impact students’ academic achievement, it has become

an important research topic for mathematics educators and educational psychologists in the past

25 years.

In conformity with Chua, Q. L. (2015), “nobody is born with fear. For some students, their fear

of math started with the multiplication table or algebra”. Nearly all of them can be traced back

to a dreadful, often traumatic encounter with numbers.

“The thing with math is, the only way to overcome the fear is for you to succeed. There is no

other way,’’ as stated by Chua (2015), also Chua indicates that there’s no such thing as a math

genius. It’s not genetic. No one is born with math genes. Math is all about mentoring. So you can

begin by raising a problem solver. The heart of mathematics is problem-solving and that’s what

we don’t have as a country. That’s why we don’t like math.

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According to Chua (2015), algebra is a harder lesson but don’t give up. “It is a difficult subject

that is why many teachers also can’t teach it well”. The teachers should not tell their students

“bobo” or “you can’t do it”.

“But that’s it – you cannot give up! Yes, algebra is harder because it is abstract. It is a difficult

subject, but many also don’t teach it well. Never say “bobo” or you could not do it”. Don’t be a

teacher if you’re like that”, she said.

There are two kinds of math anxiety: one that is caused by a lousy teacher or parent or tutor;

and one that is societal, the learned helplessness (“Namana ko sa tatay ko eh”, “We’re

Filipinos. Everybody knows we’re bad at math”).

“Don’t ever say you cannot apply math in real life”, Chua said. “You need math to figure out a

tip, or discount, or interest rates, computing your credit card bill and inflation rates”. In real

life, we don’t always need an exact answer. But in problem-solving, we need to know when and

if our estimates are reasonable, according to Chua (2015).

Reference:

 Foley, A. E., Herts, J. B., Borgonovi, F., Guerriero, S., Levine, S. C., & Beilock, S. L.

(2017). The math anxiety-performance link: A global phenomenon. Current directions in

psychological science, 26(1), 52-58.

 Magsambol, B. (2020). PH lowest among 58 countries in math, science–Global

assessment. Rappler. Retrieved February, 2, 2021.

 Bantiding, H. A. (2009). Mathematics Anxiety, Ability and Performance among Second

Year High School Students.  ADDU-SAS Graduate School Research Journal, 5(1), 1-1

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 [Link]

LOCAL LITERATURE

Dilip Datta (2018) writes a systematic analysis of mathematics and its impact on students,

paving the way for a better comprehension of the field: “Math anxiety is, nowadays, a well-

known phenomenon.” His new book “Transforming Math Anxiety to Math Agility” is an in-

depth book that tackles specific points on how to achieve an understanding of math and

prevent anxiety from taking over when exploring the topic. This book by Dilip Datta

comprises all the observations, research, and experiments conducted by a math teacher. It

illustrates how the teacher is genuinely concerned about his students with anxiety issues

for this specific subject, MATH.

In this publication, he works with students suffering from math anxiety and assists them in

overcoming it by adhering to certain professional methods. The book contains discussions

and views by experts about math anxiety, causes of math anxiety, types of math anxiety,

and various teaching strategies. We have included a careful study of some rough spots of

math and how to make them easy and understandable to students. Also, it consists of

selected examples of cases and how we tried to help the afflicted person. Through these

examples, we have tried to reveal the nature of the problem and practical ways to solve

them. To make the text lively and interesting, we have included the opinion and reactions

of the students, in their own words, to our approach.

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Reference:

Datta, D. (2018). Transforming Math Anxiety to Math Agility. Page Publishing Inc.

In accordance with Buckley, S. (2020), a new resource aimed at addressing issues in

mathematics teaching suggests primary teachers read picture books with their students to

help them overcome their math anxiety. Buckley indicates that the resource is one of the

eight new monographs produced by the Victorian Department of Education and Training to

support principals, learning leaders, and teachers in thinking about their priorities and

student needs in mathematics. The research shows feeling worried or nervous when

performing mathematical tasks can negatively affect working memory, which in turn

comprises mathematical achievement. Her monograph recommends “bibliotherapy” – the

practice of helping an individual address negative emotion through reading and discussion

as a strategy that can help students understand and reduce their maths anxiety. The

monograph explains that it is crucial to have follow-up discussions and activities with

students after reading picture books in class or one-on-one to identify the main

experiences of the characters and make connections between those experiences and any

possible emotions the students may be experiencing. By empathizing with a character that

has difficulties similar to those that arise in math classes, students are "supported to find

their ways of resolving these difficulties as they witness how the character in the book

addresses the problem," according to research.

Reference:

Buckley, S. (2020). Mathematics anxiety.

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For Students:

This research study will able to find out the causes for being afraid or anxious in a

math class of first-year Bachelor of Elementary Education students.

S.Y. 2022-2023 2nd Term