A Research on the Elementary School Students' Math Fears in Turkey

Research Journal of International Studies, 2012

The purpose of this study is to examine the views of elementary school students, parents and teachers on the reasons of mathematic fears. For this purpose the interview questions asked the students (three questions), parents (two questions) and teachers (three questions) individually. In this qualitative research, we interview 140 elementary school students, 70 parents and 20 mathematic teachers in public elementary schools that are randomly determined in Turkey. The results show that one-quarter of the students are afraid of mathematics, experience stress as a result of extreme importance the families impose to math course, not be satisfied that courses have been trained with the existing teaching methods and techniques. As an overall conclusion, elementary school students 'levels of math fear, and this is causing math fear as students' general fear of the variables investigated in this research was low. The parents attribute the greatest importance to mathematics, and teachers need to change their traditional approaches of mathematic teaching to a more moderate and democratic one. The suggestions are presented at the end of the paper for best practices to alleviate students' math fear.

Journal Human Research in Rehabilitation, 2021

The aim of this work is toresearch does exist a fear of mathematics, what are the causes of fear of mathematics, in what forms fear is manifested and what parents do to repress a fear of mathematics at students in higher grades of elementary school. For the purposes of the research, two separate scales were created which measured the fear of mathematics at students from the perspective of parents and students. The research was conducted in the elementary schools in Central Bosnia with students of fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth grades. We leave the survey questionnaire at the end, in attachment, so that it can be viewed. Analysis or data processing we worked and we got results which we´ve presented in this work. There shouldn´t be fear in the teaching process.Students shouldn´t come to school under pressure or in fear, but should find ways to motivate themselves to work because of their personal progress and training for life. Parents and teachers help them with that. Achiev...

The purpose of this research is to determine which level is the primary education students’ maths fear and variables cause to this fear. The group of research includes of 1948 students who have education in 3th,4th,5th,6th,7th,and 8th grades at the primary schools from The Ministry of National Education in Sivas City during the Academic year 2010–2011. “Fear scale to maths”’ which is 22 items, prepared by researcher is used as a means of obtaining data. Reliability coefficient of Scale is counted as 􀄮= .907. For validity studies of scale , Professional opinion and factor analysis are profited .In addition ,their opinions about maths fear are taken as applying the parent – teacher meeting forms to 140 students, 20 teachers,70 parents. Descriptive statistics, t test of unrelated samplings, One-way analysis of variance, Sheffe test, H test of Kruksal Wallis and U test of Mann Whitney are used on analysis of data. According to this research’s consequences, levels of primary students’ maths fear are low. Levels of school girls’ maths fear are lower than levels of school boys’ maths fear. Levels of primary students’ maths fear differentiate in regard to sex of teacher. Levels of maths fear differentiate in regard to levels of students’ class. Accordingly, as level of class is high ,maths fear increases. As maths notes of students increase, maths fear decreases. Levels of primary students’ maths fear differentiate in regard to educational status of parent. As the educational status of parent is high, level of student’s maths fear decreases. Maths fear differentiates in regard to total monthly incomes of parent. As level of income increases, maths fears of students decrease.Some of the interview forms are prepared and some interviews are held for the students, parents and teachers at the qualitative section of the research. For thispurpose the interview questions asked the students (three questions), parents (two questions) and teachers (three questions) individually. In this qualitative research, we interview 140 elementary school students, 70 parents and 20 mathematic teachers in public elementary schools that are randomly determined in Turkey. The results show that one-quarter of the students are afraid of mathematics, experience stress as a result of extreme importance the families impose to math course, not be satisfied that courses have been trained with the existing teaching methods and techniques. As an overall conclusion, elementary school students 'levels of math fear, and this is causing math fear as students' general fear of the variables investigated in this research was low. The parents attribute the greatest importance to mathematics, and teachers need to change their traditional approaches of mathematic teaching to a more moderate and democratic one. The suggestions are presented at the end of the paper for best practices to alleviate students’ math fear. Keywords: Mathematic, fear, maths fear, primary education

2018

The aim of this study was to conduct a systematic review research concentrating on studies regarding ‘Mathematics anxiety’. 59 papers were reanalyzed in order to answer the questions derived from the main aim in terms of the rules of systematic review method. These studies were reviewed and analyzed by taking account of their aims, designs, sampling and results. While doing this, the similarities and differences of the reviewed studies were also found. It was seen that most of these studies conducted with middle school students. It was also found that the majority of reviewed studies were designed according to quantitative approaches. The review shows that mathematics anxiety is resulted from students’ achievement, self-efficacy and fear along with parents’ and teachers’ lack of supports in mathematics. The results gathered from reviewed studies suggest that studies designed with approaches like qualitative and mixed-method and studies focused on various topics related with ‘Mathema...

Uluslararası Eğitim Programları ve Öğretim Çalışmaları Dergisi, 2021

The aim of this research study is to determine how students define their anxiety about learning mathematics, to determine the symptoms of anxiety and to define how anxiety occurs. The phenomenology research design was used in the study. A semi-structured interview form was used as a data collection tool in the research. The data were analyzed through the content analysis. The study group of the research consists of four male and four female 8th graders in two public secondary schools in Uluborlu district of Isparta. According to the results, students predominantly defined mathematics anxiety as frightening/scary. Also, students identified the symptoms of mathematics anxiety mostly as the theme of physical/physical symptoms. Students stated that sociological, psychological and philosophical dimensions were effective in the emergence of mathematical anxiety. Some students expressed common views on the sociological dimension-psychological and psychological-philosophical dimension. The ...

Math is a fact that can never be avoided because one who can’t calculate quickly and confidently will always be pitied. With this, this subject becomes a staple ingredient in the educational systems. However, despite its worth, some students demonstrate fear towards it and regards it as a stuff of nightmare. Upsettingly, students who fear math do not commit themselves to learning it for he does not see any purpose to it. Hence, this study aimed at examining students’ fears in Mathematics as it contemplates at creating measures to lessen students’ fears and improve their performance in the subject. Findings showed that that students, at large, have little fear towards the subject but many possess moderate to high apprehension in Math. Also, Grade 7 students significantly have lower fear in the subject than Grade 8 students. Keywords— Examining, Mathematics, Mathematics fear, Students

Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2014

In this study we investigate elementary school students' mathematics anxiety in Kocaeli province, located at the north western part of Turkey. Depending upon our aim, in this study we have used qualitative research method. According to the purposive sampling and typical-purposive sampling procedures, nine public primary schools in Kocaeli were selected. 482 pupils in the sampling were questioned. The data obtained are analyzed by using SPSS13 program. Descriptive statistical methods and inferential statistical methods such as t-test and one way ANOVA are used to analyze the research data. The results will be discussed hoping that this study can be useful for teachers, pupils and parents to recognize the reasons of mathematics anxiety and to overcome it.

International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education, 2008

Using a sample of 4 th and 5 th graders, this study investigated whether students' mathematics anxiety differed significantly according to a group of variables. A total of 249 students participated in the study. "The Mathematics Anxiety Scale for Elementary School Students" and "The Personal Information Form" were used for data collection. Independent samples t-tests, Oneway Anova and Schefee test were used to analyze the data. Results showed that students' mathematics anxiety differed significantly according to gender, whether they liked mathematics class or not, whether they liked their mathematics teachers or not and the achievement level in mathematics. Female students reported significantly higher mathematics anxiety than males. Students who liked mathematics class and those who liked their mathematics teachers had lower anxiety. Students with higher achievement in mathematics reported lower degrees of mathematics anxiety. However, results did not show any significant difference in students' mathematics anxiety with respect to their grade level and gender-stereotypes about success in mathematics.

Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2012

The purpose of the study is to investigate relationship between math anxiety and gender, grade, perceived enjoyment of mathematics, perceived appreciation of mathematics teacher, type of school, parent's education, number of siblings, and mathematics achievement. Participants were sixth (n = 120) and seventh (n = 124) grade students selected using convenience sampling from two different schools in Fethiye. Significant differences were found between mathematics anxiety and perceived enjoyment of mathematics, perceived appreciation of mathematics teacher, and mathematics achievement. Female students obtained lower anxiety scores than male students. Students who like their mathematics teachers had significantly lower mathematics anxiety.

International Conference on Early Childhood Education, 2019

It is clear that the fundamental concepts, principles and procedures from some branches of mathematics should be known by all students, particularly in basic level in grade 1 to 6. However, in fact, some students claimed that mathematics is a difficult (complex), scary and not enjoy full subject to learn. This study aims to investigate the views and discussion of the strategies used in order to persuade pupils to love mathematics. Descriptive review method was used in the research. Study results show that there are three strategies used in order o persuade student to love mathematics, namely, (1) mathematics teacher should have great enjoy full manner in instructional ability and strategy (2) the learning should be connected to their student's daily life activities (3) development of personal self-confidence student character, the purpose of mathematics is not only collecting of concepts and skills to be mastered, but including of mastering mathematical reasoning and communication skills for students.