1. SME 3023:
TRENDS AND ISSUES IN EDUCATION FOR MATHEMATICAL
SCIENCES
INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT:
The W H Phenomenal of Mathematics Anxiety
NAME & MATRIC NO:
NUR ADILAH BINTI YAHAYA
D20081032234
DATE OF SUBMISSION:
17.11. 2011
LECTURER’S NAME:
PROF DR MARZITA PUTEH

2. The W H Phenomenal Of Mathematics Anxiety.
1. What is mathematics anxiety?
Math anxiety or designated by Dreger and Aiken as number anxiety is a situation
where students tends to block any intellectual improvement regarding mathematics.
Lazarus describes mathematics anxiety as “mathophobia” or irrational dreads of
mathematics. According to Sigmund Freud, there are two types of anxiety which are
objective anxiety and neurotic anxiety. Objective anxiety referred to somewhat most
people experienced as complex internal reaction from anticipated harm from the
external danger. In the other hand, neurotic anxiety differed from objective anxiety in
a way that the danger is actually come from within and usually the object of original
danger situation was not recognised. Anxiety can be portrayed through physiology,
phenomenon and behaviour. According to Philips et al, there are two factors
pertaining mathematics anxiety which is state anxiety and trait anxiety. State anxiety
can be defined as situational in nature and is a function of stressful condition having a
contemporary locus while trait anxiety is depositional in nature. Student who has
mathematics anxiety generally finds it very difficult to make progress in Mathematics.
Hence, this will cause the person or student to achieve badly in Mathematics.
2. Why does it happen?
Mathematics anxiety occurs due to these seven main factors. First are the teacher
personality and their style of teaching. The way the teacher embraced mathematics
will influenced how their students thinks about mathematics. Teacher who hates
mathematics tends to implement a negative student’s attitude towards mathematics.
Secondly, public examination and their effects. It is commonly known in Malaysian
scenario that the education is highly examination-oriented and most students raced to
get good grades as an indicator of their achievement. Mathematics is used as filter to
determine their future education opportunity, hence creating unnecessary tension
toward mathematics examination. Thirdly, it is caused by affective domain. Affective
domain is contributed by self factor such as personality and perception toward
mathematics. Another factor contributing mathematics anxiety is parental expectation.
Parents usually expect their children to score well in mathematics as an indicator of
their achievement, this will cause the students to have the feeling of being forced to
do so well unwillingly. The next factor is peer group influences. According to Aiken,

3. that one possible determiner of attitudes towards mathematics is the attitude of one’s
peer. This factor closely related to parental influenced because, not all parents or
family can assist their children in solving mathematics related questions, hence, this
cause students or in this case, trainees to rely on their peer to help them doing their
assignment or homework. Lastly, the main factors contributing mathematic anxiety
are the relevance of study mathematics. Many trainees mention the word abstract
when it came to mathematics. Basic calculation like addition and subtraction are
relevance to daily lives, however the used of symbol such x, y, square roots and pi
seems so detached from their daily lives.
3. Who has it ?
Mathematics anxiety usually suffered by person who has a feeling of tension and
anxiety that interfere with the manipulation of numbers and the solving of
mathematical problems in a wide variety of ordinary life and academic situations.
This person will also feel incapable of doing anything involving mathematics and
tends to choose an activity or major that require minimum usage of mathematics. We
can also detect person who suffer this anxiety when they were being assessed on a
mathematical task. They often show sign such as tremor in the hands or sweating of
hands. They will also show feeling of restless and tense. Avoidance in Mathematics is
also one of the ways of detecting if a person has mathematics anxiety or not. This
person tends to avoid doing any mathematical activities so that they don’t have to
confront their fear.
4. When does it occur?
The feeling of frightened, afraid, threatened and panicky towards mathematics is often
used by trainees to express their feelings towards mathematics. Mathematics anxiety
occurs among trainees or students when they were given a challenging task that they
think they will likely to fail. Most students or trainees will be afraid that they will get
scolded if they did not get the right answer, hence putting a pressure on them and
making them anxious about the subject. Having a low confidence will contribute to
mathematics anxiety because they got easily frightened that they might not be able to
solve any mathematical task that is given to them. Due to the lack of confidence,
many trainees express their worries and fear towards mathematics. Apart from the two

4. situations given above, the anxiety occurs when the trainees blame themselves for
poor mathematics performance.
5. Who or what create it ?
Factors contributing towards mathematics anxiety differ from one student to another.
To answer “what” create it, first, the feelings towards mathematics itself. Many
students look at mathematics as a subject which students with high IQ will achieve
very well. Next, besides having their own perspective about mathematic, the “things”
creating mathematic anxiety is their feelings towards mathematic teachers. Having a
class with 40 to 50 students per class may lead the student to believe that the teacher
is teaching either too fast or they were learning too slowly. This will cause them to
become anxious whenever mathematics being taught. Being humiliate is the last thing
that a person wants to face. Many students will feel anxious when they were called to
the blackboard to answer the question given. Although this act is one of the method or
learning, teachers might unintentionally cause their students to suffer mathematics
anxiety. When a student feel inadequate in mathematics, they tends to spend their
time and energy worrying about appearing inadequate and they put a lot of effort into
trying to protect themselves from others finding out their inadequacy, hence making
self-protect as their central theme. Therefore, constant vigilance about being exposed
means constant anxiety. Apart from that, the teacher-student relationship also condone
to mathematics anxiety. Fear of asking help, teachers blaming students for not
understanding, teacher ridiculing students, teachers’ strictness and fierceness, use of
threats and force by teachers, some positive effect of disciplined required, teachers not
showing interest in their students is the factor contributing to dysfunctional teacher-
student relationship, which lead to mathematics anxiety.
6. How do you reduce it ?
There is 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 alleviate anxiety related to mathematics. In her
workbook Conquering Math Anxiety, Cynthia Arem offers specific strategies to

5. reduce math avoidance and anxiety. One strategy she advocates for is relaxation
exercises and indicates that by practicing relaxation techniques on a regularly basis
for 10–20 minutes students can significantly can reduce their anxiety. Apart from that,
studies have shown students learn best when they are active rather than passive
learners. The theory of multiple intelligences suggests that there is a need for
addressing different learning styles. Mathematics lessons can be tailored for
visual/spatial, logical/mathematics, musical, auditory, body/kinaesthetic, interpersonal
and intrapersonal and verbal/linguistic learning styles. Everyone is capable of
learning, but may learn best in different ways. Therefore, lessons must be presented in
a variety of ways. New concepts can be taught through play acting, cooperative
groups, visual aids, hands on activities or information technology.
7. How do you eliminate it ?
Eliminating mathematics anxiety is not easy task to be done. However these steps can
be taken as preliminary steps to achieve that goal. First, accommodating for different
learning styles. As we know, different student, different learning style, so we have to
try to accommodate our teaching styles so that each students were given opportunity
to learn effectively. Next is creating a variety of testing environments. Apart from
that, designing positive experiences in math classes. By doing so, students will feel
more confident to handle anything pertaining mathematics hence eliminating this
anxiety. Next, students should refrain from tying self-esteem to success with
mathematics. As teachers, we can also emphasizing that everyone makes mistakes in
mathematics so that they don’t feel humiliated or embarrassed whenever they make
mistakes in mathematics. Next, making math relevant. As discussed earlier, students
tend to feel anxious around mathematics because they couldn’t relate mathematics
usage in daily life apart from basic calculations. Another step that can be taken is
allowing for different social approaches to learning mathematics. Last but not least,
we as teacher have to emphasizing the importance of original, quality thinking rather
than rote manipulation of formulas.