Examining the Gender and Grade Level Differences in Mathematics Anxiety

Michelle Rivera Lacia (Natural Science/SocialScience/Mathematics Department of the College of Arts and Science, Notre dame University, Cotabato City 9600, Philippines)
Francisco Ben (School of Education, Tabor College, Adelaide 5034, South Australia)
Elizar Elizar (Department of Mathematics Education, Syiah Kuala University, Banda Aceh 23111, Indonesia)

Proceedings of Annual International Conference Syiah Kuala University - Social Sciences Chapter
Vol 10 (2020): the 10th AIC on Social Sciences, Syiah Kuala University

Globally, mathematics has always been perceived as a challenging subject, thus students across schooling levels have disliked mathematics leading to the feeling of anxiety towards the subject. This study investigated students’ mathematics anxiety levels across gender and grade (Grade 6 of elementary school and 4th Year of High School) in the south central part of the Philippines. The Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Anxiety Scale (FSMAS) was employed to examine the levels of mathematics anxiety of 6,672 elementary and secondary students from the seven school divisions in Region XII. The data were analysed by independent-sample t-test using SPSS 20. The results showed that there was a significant gender difference in terms of their anxiety towards mathematics. The results also indicated a significant difference on the anxiety levels between grade 6 and 4th Year of High School students, with grade 6 having the higher anxiety level compared to 4th year high school students. It is recommended to extend the study to different groups of students in different school levels using a more complex modelling and statistical methods.