Relevance - The Usage Of Mathematics In Everyday Life

The most prominent issue raised by the trainees was that their teachers were using old fashioned way of teaching (Puteh, 2002).  The way of the subject was being taught led the trainees to perceive the subject as having no links to everyday life.  Thus the process creates a dislike for the subject and an anxiety by itself.

They cannot relate the theories they have learnt in mathematics lesson to the real life situation.

Peer Group Influences

            Peer network interactions might operate in a number of ways to develop and encourage attitudes, values, and behaviours related to learning. Pattison (1994) argues that social influence can be classified into three categories. Firstly, a social relationship may determine the type of information a person is exposed to. Secondly, typical patterns of social interaction may lead to social influence, i.e., when students develop a shared level of mathematics anxiety to show affinity to their peer group. And thirdly, social influence may occur when people perceive that their social position (e.g. as an active or not-active member of the peer network) has implications for cognition and behaviour.

Students with low performance (slow learner) try to move the same phase as those with higher achievements in mathematics, and if they failed to do so, they give up. Students with low performance’s belief that they will not do better, they then influence friends in their circle.

Parental Expectations - Their Aspirations And Standards

The students think too much to meet the expectations and standards of their parents. The pressure from family occurs especially if any of the family members do better in mathematics. Students could see their parents as having a job and doing well without a great love for mathematics and think that they will be successful without an appreciation of mathematics as well.

Feelings, Worries, Difficulties (Memory, Innate Disability)

Burton, 1979 says that signs on people that have mathematics anxiety are like sweating palms, queasy stomach, panic, fear, clenched fists, cold sweat, helplessness, tension, distress, dry mouth, shame and inability to cope and many more just like other phobia. Students confronted with a difficult mathematical task on which they are to be assessed may feel nervous and show signs such as tremor in the limbs and sweating of hands.

A student may, for a variety of reasons, develop an emotional and intellectual block towards the learning of mathematics in the course of his school years. Lazarus (1974) describe that a student who has developed an emotional and intellectual block against mathematics finds that making progress in mathematics and closely related fields is very difficult. If student became over-anxious when he or she did not fully understand some part of the mathematics lesson, they would make greater effort to comprehend. Such a student actively turns away from mathematics and rapidly develops a fatalistic attitude about mathematics, fully expecting to do badly. Therefore, constant failure in solving mathematical problem hence triggers the dislike for the subject.

Affective Domain - The Self Factor, Such As Personality, Perception

From the affective perspective, Bush (1991) commented that mathematics anxiety arises from a climate in which negative attitudes and anxiety are transmitted from adults to children.  McMillan (1976) found that teachers’ attitude and enthusiasm toward a subject had greater impact on student attitudes than instructional variables.

Lazarus (1974) and Wilhelm and Brooks (1980) added that negative parental attitudes may be transmitted to their children and that parents often reinforce their children’s mathematics anxiety. It could be very difficult for students to like mathematics when their parents did not do well in mathematics themselves, and thus do not understand it or do not think it is important.

Students could see their parents as having a job and doing well without a great love for mathematics and think that they will be successful without an appreciation of mathematics as well.

 Students with low achievement in mathematics usually those with low self esteem and slow learner, easily giving-up, dislike of being challenged, low confidence and self blaming for poor mathematics performance.

Public Examinations And Their Effect

In Malaysia, the Education System is highly examination-oriented. Many students perceive that getting good grades will indicate their achievements. There is a perception that getting an A for mathematics in public examination reflect that the person has better IQ. Good achievement in Mathematics has also been the basic requirement for the student to further their studies. In this way, students felt threatened by mathematics examination.

            Morris (1981) stated that mathematics tends to lend itself to being taught with procedures that unnecessarily build tension and pressure in some students. She further argue that for example, in a timed test, many especially the anxious, tend to freeze up under time pressure.

            A study by Betz (1978) revealed that the level of mathematics anxiety reported was related to scores on a standardized mathematics achievement test.  In other words people with high achievement scores tended to report low mathematics anxiety and vice versa.  The trainees here seemed to confirm that high anxiety about mathematics was predictably liked with poor results in public examinations.

Teacher Personality And Their Style Of Teaching

Math anxiety is caused by the negative predispositions of mathematics teacher. Teachers and parents that are afraid of mathematics pass that on to their students and children (Furner & Duffy, 2002). Teachers with mathematics anxiety transmit their anxiety to their students (Kelly and Tomhave, 1985; Bulman and Young, 1982 and Lazarus, 1974).

If  the teacher does not value mathematics, his students certainly cannot be expected to value mathematics either. There are many things the mathematics teacher can do that will provoke his students to dislike mathematics. The teacher may be perceived as not caring about students because he is unwilling to give extra help to students who need it. The students need to know that their teacher is able and willing to help them.

Most students fear of asking for help and they feel shy because they do not know how to solve the mathematics problems. Besides that, the fear of being blamed by their teachers seemed to be a recurring theme in the students’ response.  This situation created a barrier between the teacher and the student relationship.

According to (Jackson & Leffingwell, 1999), the teacher needs to be aware of his words, sighs, and overall body language. This is because the teacher may become angry or frustrated and use non-proper words when his class does not understand the problems.

            Moreover, covering the textbook problem by problem can turn students off from learning mathematics. Also, giving written work every day, insisting there is only one correct way to complete a problem, and assigning mathematics problems as punishment for misbehaviour can cause students to dislike mathematics (Furner & Duffy, 2002).

            No one enjoys discipline. Making students do mathematics as a form of discipline could very likely cause students to dislike mathematics.

What Causes Mathematics Anxiety

From the research conducted by (Marzita Puteh, 1998), there are several causes of mathematics anxiety. The major cause of mathematics anxiety was related to teacher personality and their style of teaching. Besides that, public examination and their effects also lead to mathematics anxiety. Other than that, it is also related to affective domain or the self factor such as student’s personality and his perception to mathematics. Feelings and worries also lead to mathematics anxiety since students will have difficulties with their memory and innate disability.

Moreover, students were also burden by parent’s expectation and standards where they must excel in mathematics if they want to success. Furthermore, it was found that peer group influences and the relevance of studying mathematics also caused mathematics anxiety.