Math Anxiety
Mathematics anxiety can be defined as a feeling of tension or insecurity that interferes with one's ability to perform in mathematics, manipulate numbers, and solve mathematical problems in daily life and in academics. The purpose of the study will be to identify the facilitators and barriers of mathematics anxiety among college students.
In this study.
A scoping review methodology was used, including nursing, cumulative index of relevant medical literature, Embase, Scopus, PsycInfo, Medline, Education Resources Information Centre, Google Scholar, grey literature A database search was conducted to address the concept of math anxiety, identify barriers and facilitators of math anxiety, have a research population composed of college students, and include articles written in Arabic or English.
Ten articles were included in the study and math anxiety is said to be an issue that affects many areas across multiple countries and sectors.
From the included articles, the following themes emerged: gender, self-awareness, numeracy, and learning disabilities. Patterns of how gender affects math anxiety vary across countries and disciplines. There was a significant positive relationship between students' math self-efficacy and math performance, as well as between math self-efficacy, drug calculation self-efficacy, and drug calculation performance.
Conclusion.
Math anxiety is an issue that affects many areas across multiple countries and sectors, and the development of math anxiety can be influenced by gender.
Women are more prone to math anxiety than men, and math confidence, math values, and self-efficacy are related to self-perception. Improving these concepts may result in overcoming math anxiety and improving performance.
Khasawneh, E., Gosling, C. & Williams, B. What impact does maths anxiety have on university students? BMC Psychol 9, 37 (2021). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-021-00537-2
Summary
In this study, it was stated that women are more likely to have math anxiety, and the reason why women are more likely to have math anxiety is unknown. One possible explanation is based on the perception that mathematics is a male domain because society has been more male since the past.
The next reason is the difference in perception of mathematics, which is related to self-perception. In short, it has a lot to do with whether or not one understands the benefits of mathematics, and those who have experienced some kind of reward from mathematics tend to be less anxious about it.
It is not necessary to ask this question again, but the key point seems to be whether or not people know what mathematics will be useful for in the future, which may or may not make them anxious.
Next, the difference in understanding based on numerical ability is explained, and although the ability to cope with numerical ability differs from person to person, being compared with others in school education, etc., seems to cause anxiety due to a sense of inferiority in mathematics.
You might think that this is genetic. You might think so, but it has been shown that people who are anxious about math have a positive relationship with low numerical ability, although it has been shown that it can be trained with proper math training and less reliance on calculators.
On a related note, it was noted that learning disabilities, dyslexia, etc. can increase math anxiety, which may be addressed through interventions that address the disability.
The study showed that
Understand why math is useful.
Train yourself in mathematics.
If the anxiety is eliminated, the attitude toward mathematics will change.
