Students’ Learning Experiences: A Case Study of Cognitive, Environmental and Behavioral Predispositions towards Math Anxiety
Keywords:
Environment, Mathematics Anxiety (MA), Learning experience, Behavioural, Cognitive.Abstract
The purpose of the study is to 1) investigate problems of math anxiety among Diploma students 2) the ways students experience mathematics anxieties and 3) the aspect of mathematics learning experience that prompts mathematics anxiety in students. The design for this study is a case study. This study is divided into two stages. Stage one is obtaining students’ results in mathematics. After that, the students’ results were analyzed to enable the researcher to choose students with low and high performance for stage two. The researcher selects suitable students for stage two which is the semi-structured interview. The study instrument is a mathematics anxiety questionnaire and interview. Nine students were chosen through a purposive sampling technique. The SPSS and all the interviews recorded were coded using ATLAS. Ti version 8 to analyze the data collected to provide answers to the research questions. The findings uncovered that; tension and attitude were the primary concern of students’ mathematics anxiety in the mathematics learning experience. It was revealed that evaluation causes math anxiety. It was revealed that students’ math learning is influenced by cognitive, environmental and behavioral learning experiences. It was discovered that both low and high achievers students experience math anxiety. It was revealed that self-doubt and lack of confidence of students when solving equations, both causes mathematics anxiety. It was also revealed that conflict within regarded to be the source of experience through cognition for math low-achiever students.
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