In preparation for the implementation of the K-12 system, the pioneering batch were required to take three math courses in the span of 10 months. The researchers believe that the limited coverage of the courses has affected the students'...
moreIn preparation for the implementation of the K-12 system, the pioneering batch were required to take three math courses in the span of 10 months. The researchers believe that the limited coverage of the courses has affected the students' performance in senior high school, as they struggle to incorporate what they have learned into their current math topics and become mentally prone to math anxiety. Math anxiety is a negative feeling that can interfere with one's mathematical abilities & potential (Curtain-Phillips, 1999), which can limit one's actualizations in the field of math.
Math is a crucial component in every curriculum, especially in the STEM track. In an effort to offer insight to this problem, the researchers conducted a systematically random sampling technique-based survey to determine the anxiety levels amongst select Grade 11 students. The survey was retrieved from Pearson Custom and was utilised in similar studies as seen in the review of related literature. The survey clearly determined math anxiety levels and this served as a basis for the follow-up interview given to purposively-selected students, chosen by the degree of their math anxiety. The study features detailed accounts of students with varying levels of math anxiety, with a limit of two representatives per math anxiety level in a track.
The results of the Pearson Custom survey indicated that 73% of the respondents have low to moderate levels of math anxiety. 18% of the respondents have a high level of math anxiety whereas only 9% of the respondents have no math anxiety at all. As seen in Figure 2, the SAD track has the highest average amount of math anxiety, as all of the respondents had some levels of anxiety. HUMMS, on the other hand, got the majority for low math anxiety levels in Figure 4. In comparison, "math-oriented" tracks such as ABM & STEM have a relatively high percentage of non-existent math anxiety levels as seen in Figure 3. A particular trend is observable in the math anxiety level results of ABM & STEM students: as the level of math anxiety increases, the percentage of their results decreases, except in Figures 5 & 6 wherein STEM's percentage increased by a negligible 1%. These results suggest that there is a correlation between the amount of exposure to math and math anxiety levels, since the ABM & STEM tracks have more math-related subjects than HUMSS & SAD.
The data collected in the briefness of this study suggests that there is an indisputable correlation between a student's chosen track and their levels of math anxiety, probably because of the limited exposure as stated beforehand. The study encountered difficulty in acquiring willing participants, thus affecting the amount of data we've gathered, particularly during the interviews. Similar studies might be able to examine this correlation further if they have more respondents per track and conduct thorough interviews.
