CHAPTER ONE Introduction Background of T
CHAPTER ONE Introduction Background of T
CHAPTER ONE Introduction Background of T
Introduction
language based subjects. It is a fact that, success in any form of training and
concepts effectively.
problem for most teachers in our Ghanaian schools especially forms one
pupils of Saint James Methodist Junior High School. Policy makers, the
Saint James Methodist Junior High School is located at Axim in the Nzema
area is estimated around ten thousand (10000). Despite their occupation they
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Interestingly, most parents do not have time for their wards education due to
school. I perceive the parent’s attitude towards their wards education may be
attributed to poverty and low educational background. The poverty level of the
parents in Axim is either basic or did attend school at all. However, there are
few parents who are committed to giving their children the best of education.
The researcher’s interest towards the investigation into anxiety factor and its
observation:
Firstly, the students under study do well in other subjects but but low marks
the mathematics teacher and the pupils is not the best (as compared to other
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mathematics anxiety among pupils in Saint James Methodist Junior High
School.
The researcher also observed with keen interest other factors that may
Methodist Junior high School and it was revealed that teachers teaching
school revealed that class teachers concentrate more on subject they are
mathematics, graph and other learning material that can help them to further
phobia among pupils will not only improve the performance in mathematics at
the basic schools but also its ripple effect will be felt in other subjects
Abstract
The research which was conducted for the pupil of Saint James Methodist
Junior High School was aimed at investigating into the causes and prevention
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mathematics performance among pupils. The main instruments used for data
High School form one. However, twelve (12) were used as the sample
population. Five (5) teachers from the junior high school and primary school
Findings from the study revealed that teaching mathematics using games,
mathematics.
Based on the findings from the study, it was recommended that teachers
should vary their teaching methods for better lesson delivery. In-Service
equip them on the right strategies and approaches in their lesson. Games and
Finally, it was reveal that most mathematics teachers are feared by their
mathematics lesson since this goes a long way to reduce mathematics anxiety
among pupils.
pupils could not do simple addition of numerals which was taught previously
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because of fear of been beaten or fear of the subject. The researcher observed
that pupil get tensed whenever it is change over for mathematics lesson. It was
also observed that most of the student could not do simple understand simple
The purpose of the study is to investigate into and identify the possible
form one pupils of Saint James Methodist Junior High School with the aim of
Research Question
The researcher formulated the following questions to serve as a guide for the
research.
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2. What are the causes of mathematics anxiety (mathematics phobia) among the
the poor performance of mathematics among form one pupils of Saint James
4. What are some of teaching strategies that can be used to minimized or prevent
The outcome of the study will be helpful to pupils, teachers, policy makers
and parent. It will improve pupils’ performance in mathematics and its ripple
effect will be felt in other subjects. The outcome will enable teachers to
delivery. Again, the outcome of the study will build confidence in students and
make them love the subject they dreaded most so that they can advance to
The findings of the study will be beneficial to the policy maker and
of policies for the basic schools of the country. It will also help parent to buy
Limitation
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Adequate time was difficult to come by in obtaining relevant information
for this project. I have really come to notice that the process of gathering
information from the basic school in the Nzema East municipality needs time.
known to them. Truancy also had its fair share on the problem encountered
especially among those from the coastal towns. Moreover, combining the
weekly one-on-one to and from the course centre coupled with preparation of
Delimitation
The researcher would have wished to cover all schools in Nzema East
Municipality but due to time, financial and other constraints, the researcher
concentrated on only Saint James Methodist Junior High School even within
this the scope of the researcher it again limited to form one class from which
Conclusion
The chapter one talked about the introduction, purpose of the study,
The chapter two focuses on the review of the related literature on the
and sample and sampling procedure, the materials used in collecting data, it
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also provides data collection procedure and discuss the analysis of data and
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CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction
among form one pupils of Saint James Methodist Junior High School ” the
researcher decided to review the related topic to enable him have the overall
goals of classifying how his study would intend to address the gap in the
mathematics in schools.
Math anxiety
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In other words, Mathematical anxiety is anxiety about one's ability to do
performance” (2002, p. 1). The first math anxiety measurement scale was
person’s feelings of tension and anxiety that interfere with the manipulation of
2011; Newstead, 1995; 2006; Perry 2004). It can also be viewed that the sense
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2.3 What are the causes of mathematics anxiety (or mathematics phobia)?
Causes
low-self esteem. Chinn (2008) argues that the advantage of this tripartite
learning style. The self concept refers to the learners’ perception of their own
ability to perform well in mathematics and to learn new topics. The situational
anchor refers to direct features that result from the mathematics subject which
include the design, topics, how the subject is presented and the availability or
lack of feedback.
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Mathematics anxiety may also be associated with the social learning theory
(Erdogan, Kesici and Sahin ,2011). Social learning theory focuses on learning
that occurs within a social context. It considers that people learn from one
teachers are likely to give learners some message (Sahin, 2008). According
to Thomas and Furner (1997), parents and teachers emphasise how difficult
mathematics is and, at the same time, tell how mathematics skills are essential
learning from teachers who are themselves anxious about their mathematical
countries, would-be math teachers are required only to obtain passing grades
understand 49% of the math syllabus throughout his or her education can, and
often does, become a math teacher. His or her fears and lack of understanding
then pass naturally to his or her students. As John Taylor Gatto has
during the late 19th century to create an environment which is ideal for
Math is usually taught as a right and wrong subject and as isf getting the
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problems almost always have a right answer. Additionally, the subject is often
taught as if there were a right way to solve the problem and any other
approaches would be wrong, even if students got the right answer. When
right/wrong approach to teaching math, students are encouraged not to try, not
to experiment, not to find algorithms that work for them, and not to take risks.
“Teachers benefit children most when they encourage them to share their
thinking process and justify their answers out loud or in writing as they
about math”.
the current Constructivist approach, math is still frequently taught with a rote
Teachers who actually understand what they are teaching tend to encourage
questions from the students. Those teachers who do not understand much
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about their subject, on the other hand, impose fear on the students to prevent
them from asking questions which might expose the teacher's ignorance.
It has long been well established that anyone (other than a tiny minority
who have serious learning disabilities) can learn any area of mathematics,
profess the belief that anything more complex than simple arithmetic is too
mathematics in schools
negative attitudes concerning math. Hembree also suggests that math anxiety
is directly connected with math avoidance. That is, the pupils who are
subjects. Ashcraft (2002) suggests that highly anxious math students will
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achieve. In college and university, anxious math students take fewer math
In fact, Ashcraft found that the correlation between math anxiety and
negative thoughts and ruminations when they are engaging in math tasks.
their math problems or tests (Ashcraft & Kirk, 2001). Math anxiety can start in
demonstrates that not only do young children experience math anxiety, but this
However, on the latter and more difficult portion of the test, there was a
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students. Students therefore, see maths teachers as magicians. Moreover, there
individual’s working memory because intrusive thoughts and worries take the
focus away from the mathematics tasks at hand. This makes it difficult to think
logically and results in increased errors and longer processing times when
Chiu, 2000). Ho et al. (2000) found that learners with higher levels of
Performance anxiety
People's fear of math can be related to test taking and performance anxiety.
Some scholars have suggested a strong relation between math anxiety and
math performance.
and Suinn introduced the MARS (Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale) in 1972.
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Elevated scores on the MARS test translate to high math anxiety. The authors
advertisement for behaviour therapy treatment for math anxiety.[5] For test-
retest reliability, the Pearson product-moment coefficient was used and a score
of 0.85 was calculated, which was favourable and comparable to scores found
previous results from three other studies that were very similar to the results
achieved in this study. They also administered the Differential Aptitude Test, a
Differential Aptitude Test scores was -0.64 (p < .01), indicating that higher
MARS scores relate to lower math test scores and “since high anxiety
result provides evidence that the MARS does measure mathematics anxiety”.
This test was intended for use in diagnosing math anxiety, testing efficacy
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The FSMAS evaluates nine specific domains using Likert-type scales:
Despite the introduction of newer instrumentation, the use of the MARS test
appears to be the educational standard for measuring math anxiety due to its
have determined that in countries such as Taiwan and Japan, parents place
more emphasis on effort rather than one’s innate intellectual ability in school
and standards for their children. In turn, students spend more time on
homework and value homework more than American children. (Stevenson &
Lee,1990).
researchers have argued that females have higher mathematics anxiety than
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males (Salwani and Salleh, 2001; Woodard, 2004, Yuksel-Sahin, 2008;
female students are often labelled as shy and this characteristic can harm their
ability to learn. Male students were found to be more active in a wider range
that the stereotypical view of this issue has a powerful impact. Beller and
Gafni’s have shown that children at approximately nine years of age do not
out of the 20 countries examined in this study, 13 year old boys tended to
masculine ability; as a result, girls often have low confidence in their math
and can cause math anxiety as research has shown that performance on
Female students believed boys were blessed with the advantage of mastering
mathematics, while the boys felt they were better able to perform in
negatively affect the ability of female students and their initial assumptions
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difference in mathematics anxiety between male and females (Marsh and
Tapia, 2002).
become more interested in social relations in their teen years. It is thought that
women experience more anxiety in mathematics as a group than men and this
has also been suggested in regards computer programming. See for instance
"Understanding the Digital Divide" who explore computing and gender and
especially have done experiments relating gender and anxiety. It has also been
female math teacher, they are more likely to confirm the math anxiety as a
gender stereotype. Girls are more likely than boys to take notice of their
female teachers "negatives and fears about math", which could negatively
influence their future pursuit of the subject. One method to help address this
mathematics.
When men and women take math exams, there is a stereotype that women
score less than men, saying they are not as good as men. The researchers
explain that it is not a biological but more of a social effect. The researchers
doing the experiment believe that gender stereotype threat could be a key
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exams. The gender stereotype threat would be gender references on the exams
and that they could affect how a male or female answers the question and if
they get it correct or not. The gender references on the exam could also be
consisting of 1/3 of male, female, and neutral questions. The results found that
proficiency than others. Even if the questions were the same, the gender label
affected the result. Here is a question they used on the exam, “There are 12 car
pools at the plant where Mr. Holst works. Half of them contain 4 people, the
other half contain 5 people. How many workers at Mr. Holst’s plant belong to
car pools?” The way they manipulated the questions was to change Mr. Holst
The ones that performed well did best on male-labelled questions while the
performance have been show to increase with age. Their main focus was to see
results showed that there were more correct answers on gender stereotype
situations and men outperformed compared to women. The results showed that
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Math Pedagogy
kindergarteners tend to use their fingers to count, this habit is soon abandoned
and replaced with a more refined and efficient strategy; children begin to
When children reach approximately eight years of age, they can retrieve
normally functioning children acquire these basic mathematic skills, and are
High risk teaching styles are often explored to gain a better understanding
of math anxiety. Goulding, Rowland and Barber (2002) suggest that there are
effectively plan teaching material. These findings suggest that teachers that do
Laturner’s research (2002) shows that teachers with certification in math are
more likely to be passionate and committed about teaching math than those
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Moreover, a study conducted by Kawakami, Steele, Cifa, Phills, and
Dovidio (2008) they examined attitudes towards math and behaviour during
teaching women to approach math. The results showed that women that were
trained to approach rather than avoid math showed a positive implicit attitude
towards math. These findings were only consistent with women low in initial
identification with math. This study was replicated with women either
implicit positive attitude and completed more math problems than women
The researchers concluded from the study’s results that women tended to
perform worse than men when problems were described as math equations.
However, women did not differ from men in a condition with a test sequence
teachers about stereotype threat can reduce its negative effects in the
classroom.
Common Beliefs
In the United States, many people believe that only a few "gifted"
individuals have "what it takes" to learn math, and that hard work cannot
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compensate for this. Studies have shown "When asked to explain why some
children do better in math than others, Asian children, their teachers, and their
fluctuates with the times as she has explored in her book [Women Becoming
perhaps parity is still a way to go. Thus parity will take more work to
students
learning.'... It is less the actual teaching and more the attitude and expectations
to calculate the answer. This component also has two subcomponents, namely
the answer and the process or method used to determine the answer. Focusing
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more on the process or method enables students to make mistakes, but not 'fail
that underlay the problem being studied. “… and in this respect studying
mathematics is much more like studying, say, music or painting than it is like
Amongst others supporting this viewpoint is the work of Dr. Eugene Geist,
concepts rather than the right answer and letting students work on their own
and discuss their solutions before the answer is given. Emphasis is given that
young people hate to be wrong and hate situations where they can be
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Math (and Statistics) Therapy is a combination of coaching and
and math education. In Math Therapy the reasons for anxiety are addressed, as
well as the mathematical skills which are lacking. New coping skills are
There are several anxiety reducing techniques that teachers can teach their
children and practice periodically throughout the year. Teachers will need to
learn these techniques and encourage the students to practice them at home
and to use them prior to testing or when feeling anxious during math class.
Several studies have shown that relaxation techniques can be used to help
Anxiety, 3rd edition, Cynthia Arem offers specific strategies to reduce math
avoidance and anxiety. One strategy she advocates for is relaxation exercises
book Mental Toughness Training for Sports, Loehr (1986) can be used in a
Visualization has also been used effectively to help reduce math anxiety.
Arem has a chapter that deals with reducing test anxiety and advocates the use
visualization. In her chapter titled Conquer Test Anxiety (Chapter 9) she has
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Studies have shown students learn best when they are active rather than
passive learners.
many applets found on the Internet that help students learn about many things
Active learners ask critical questions, such as: Why do we do it this way,
and not that way? Some teachers may find these questions annoying or
difficult to answer, and indeed may have been trained to respond to such
questions with hostility and contempt, designed to instil fear. Better teachers
respond eagerly to these questions, and use them to help the students deepen
choose for themselves which method they prefer. This process can result in
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can be done through class conversations. Teachers can give students insight as
to why they learn certain content by asking students questions such as "What
purpose is served by solving this problem?" and "why are we being asked to
learn this?"
problem solve and improve mathematical reasoning. When students know how
to use mathematical reasoning, they are less anxious about solving problems.
However, there is still a large part of school math teaching which consists
performance. When a student fails to learn the times tables at a young age,
they can experience math anxiety later, when all the students' classmates can
Children learn best when math is taught in a way that is relevant to their
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From the number of literature reviewed above, it is established that
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