CHAPTER 5

Conclusion

This chapter is framed around the four parts, namely discussion of the findings, of the
study based on the results, suggestions for contribution, recommendation and conclusion for
further research. Firstly, the selected Second Year Students’ attitudes toward mathematics
anxiety, causes of mathematics anxiety and ways for overcoming mathematics anxiety were
discussed, based on the findings of descriptive data collected. Secondly, how to reduce and
overcome mathematics anxiety of the students were presented. Thirdly, the requirements for
further research are recommended based on the findings. Finally, the conclusion of the study
was stated.
5.1 Discussion
This study was approached by the five main research questions. A total of 220 BEd
Second Year Students participated in this study and then, a descriptive research design was
used. The responses of the participants were scored by using a four-point Likert scale,
ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. The data were collected and analyzed by
using descriptive statistics. Based on the findings of the study, the following discussions
were made.
Research question (1). What percentage of BEd Second Year Students have mathematics
anxiety through their attitudes toward mathematics anxiety?
The first research question was concerned with determining the percentage of the attitudes
toward mathematics anxiety of the participants. In this study, the 110 male and 110 female
BEd Second Year Students response to ten quantitative survey items for this dimension. From
the result, nearly one-third of BEd Second Year students are feeling mathematics anxiety.
Research question (2). What percentage of BEd Second Year Students agreed with the
causes of mathematics anxiety?
The second research question was concerned with determining the percentage of the
causes of mathematics anxiety of the participants. From the result, there may be other causes
of mathematics anxiety in addition to the causes.
Research question (3). What percentage of BEd Second Year Students agreed with the
ways for overcoming mathematics anxiety?

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 The third research question was concerned with determining the percentage of the ways
for overcoming mathematics of the participants. From the result, there may be other ways for
overcoming mathematics anxiety.
Research question (4). What are the extent of mathematics anxiety through their attitudes
toward mathematics anxiety, causes of mathematics anxiety and ways for overcoming
mathematics anxiety?
The fourth research question was concerned with determining the extent of mathematics
anxiety through their attitudes toward mathematics anxiety, causes of mathematics anxiety
and ways for overcoming mathematics anxiety. From the descriptive results of attitudes
toward mathematics anxiety, students’ mathematics anxiety was at the moderate level. From
the descriptive results of causes of mathematics anxiety, the causes might be the causes of
mathematics anxiety. From the descriptive results of ways for overcoming mathematics
anxiety, most of the students overcome their mathematics anxiety by these ways.
Research question (5). What are the extent of mathematics anxiety according to gender,
passed with distinction and desire to elect?
The fifth research question was concerned with determining the extent of mathematics
anxiety according to gender, passed with distinction and desire to elect for attitudes toward
mathematics anxiety. According to gender, male students had more mathematics anxiety than
female students. According to passed with distinction, students who passed with no
distinction in mathematics had more mathematics anxiety than those who passed with it.
According to desire to elect, students who did not have desire to elect mathematics subject
felt more mathematics anxiety than those who had.
For causes of mathematics anxiety, according to gender, male students admitted to the
causes of mathematics anxiety than female students. According to passed with distinction,
students who did not pass distinction in mathematics fell in with the causes than those who
did. According to desire to elect, students who did not have desire to elect mathematics
accepted the causes than who did.
For ways for overcoming mathematics anxiety, according to gender, the female students
received into the ways for overcoming mathematics anxiety than male students. According to
passed with distinction, students who passed with distinction in mathematics accepted the

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ways than those who did not. According to desire to elect, students who had desire to elect
mathematics advocated the ways than those who did not.
Based on the research findings, the suggestions for decreasing of the students’
mathematics anxiety were described in the following section.
5.2 Suggestions
Based on the analysis of the research of the research findings, the following suggestions
were made to reduce BEd second year students’ mathematics anxiety.
Suggestions for reducing the students’ attitude toward mathematics anxiety: The
main point for reducing anxiety is that students’ attitude must be changed from negative to
positive attitude. From the finding of the extent of BEd second year students’ mathematics
anxiety, the mean score of the attitude toward mathematics anxiety was moderate level. From
this result, it can be suggested that parents, teachers and education administers should be
aware of this findings and monitors the role of the students’ attitude toward mathematics
anxiety.
Suggestions for reducing the causes of mathematics anxiety: Causes of mathematics
anxiety determine the students’ anxiety in their educational field. From the findings of the
percentage of BEd Second Year Students’ mathematics anxiety, 81.32% of the participants
did not agree with the causes of mathematics anxiety and only 18.68% of participants agree
with the causes. Therefore, it can be interpreted that there may be other causes of
mathematics anxiety in addition to the causes.
Suggestions for overcoming students’ mathematics anxiety: If students have
mathematics anxiety, it can lead to lower performance in test than students’ true ability
warrants. Therefore, it is very important for students to overcome mathematics anxiety.
According to the findings, the mean score of the selected participants in ways for overcoming
mathematics anxiety was the highest among all the dimensions. More than three-quarters of
the participants agree with the survey questionnaire items of the ways for overcoming
mathematics anxiety. Therefore, most of the students have the desire to overcome their
mathematics anxiety.
Suggestions for students: Generally, students are one of the most important persons in
teaching-learning process. The students should invest their attentions and their efforts in
learning mathematics. They should actively participate in mathematics activities that lead to

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become more interested and possess more positive attitude toward mathematics subject. It is
also responsible for the students to be more attentive, active and curious to learn in
mathematics class. Moreover, students should attend their classes regularly and do their
homework regularly.
Suggestions for parents: Parental involvement occupies a significant role in shaping the
children’s positive self-perceptive about their academic abilities and confidence in their
learning. As the parents, they can help students to reduce the causes of mathematics anxiety
by giving more attention on enhancing their personal growth and improving in attitudes and
behaviors in mathematics. Parents need to recognize the words that they are communicating
directly or indirectly to their children from early childhood with regard to academic
achievement. Parents are important for reducing students’ mathematics anxiety which
strongly correlated with their subsequent academic achievement.
Suggestions for teachers: Mathematics teachers play a key major role in promoting the
students’ well-adjusted personality in mathematics and educational attainment. Teachers
should support students in developing their ability to solve problems, reason mathematically
and connect the mathematics they are learning to the real world around them. The teachers
should explain mathematical concepts in easy and understandable terms to the students,
develop students’ interest in mathematics, plan and create teaching materials. Students should
be given more opportunities to engage in mathematics class discussions and time to ask
questions privately. And then, students should be encouraged to brush up on foundational
concepts and skills in mathematics. Therefore, teachers should help students to reduce
mathematics anxiety.
5.3 Recommendations
This study was conducted in Yangon University of Education. The quantitative research
method was mainly used. Having carried out this study, the following findings from the
descriptive analysis were recommended.
Firstly, the sample was not sufficient to represent the whole second year students in
Yangon University of Education. Secondly, the possibility was that the students may answer
the questions depending on their mood and emotional state while taking the test. And to
determine the mathematics anxiety of the students, only 30 close-ended questions were
constructed. Therefore, it was difficult to collect the accurate data from all of the participants.

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Finally, the study was generally restricted to BEd Second Year students. It cannot cover
overall students of Yangon University of Education.
After the study has been carried out, the following points were recommended for future
research.
1. To be more representative, more students from other academic years in Yangon
University of Education should be participated in this type of study.
2. Different Education University and Education Degree Colleges should be selected to
make the comprehensive inferences about the study.
3. More than 30 close-ended questions should be constructed. To be obtained more
reliable data, future research questions should be used not only close-ended questions
but also open-ended questions.
4. In addition to mathematics subject, the anxiety of other subjects should also be
checked out.
It is hoped that the findings presented in this study are beneficial to mathematics
teachers, parents and students to reduce the mathematics anxiety of the students.
5.4 Conclusion
The main purpose of the study was to examine BEd Second Year students’
mathematics anxiety. This study was conducted with three specific objectives. The
descriptive survey research design and quantitative research method were used. This
study was carried out in Yangon University of Education. To determine the mathematics
anxiety, the 30 items of the mathematics anxiety questionnaire were used which were
based on Smith (2004), May (2009), and Tolibao (2019). The research questions were
constructed by using four-point Likert scale. The pilot study was tested to 40 BEd Second
Year students in Yangon University of Education. Based on pilot results, the reliability of
the research instruments was determined by using Cronbach’s Alpha. The reliability
coefficient for the questionnaire was .750. In the main study, 110 male and 110 female
students were selected as participants by using simple random sampling method. To
analyze the research purpose, the descriptive statistics of frequency, percentage, mean
and standard deviation were applied.
According to result, nearly one-third of BEd Second Year students were feeling
mathematics anxiety. And, only 20.68% of the participants agreed with the causes of

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mathematics anxiety. And, more than three-quarters of the participants did the ways for
overcoming mathematics anxiety. The students with anxiety in mathematics are likely to
have lower educational attainment. Teachers play an important role in reducing students’
mathematics anxiety and provide a relaxing and creative school environment for
improving the students’ motivation and confidence for learning. This study will help
parents to reduce students’ mathematics anxiety. To sum it up, this study will provide the
future researchers the baseline for enhancing the mathematics literacy in basic education
in Myanmar.