High School Students’ Mathematics Anxiety: Discouragement, Abuse, Fear, and Dilemma Induced through Adults’ Verbal Behaviour

Abstract

Mathematics anxiety in students seems to be one of the most common phenomena in mathematics teaching and learning worldwide. However, mathematics anxiety induced through the verbal behaviour of other people is an understudied area in mathematics education. This paper aimed to investigate the influence of the verbal behaviour of older people on the students’ interest and choice in studying mathematics. Ten grade-nine students studying in a high school in Kathmandu participated in semi-structured interviews. A descriptive qualitative research design, followed by a thematic analysis of the data through primary, secondary, and tertiary coding, identified four major themes related to the verbal behaviour of elders that induced mathematics anxiety in the students. These themes were discouragement, abuse, fear, and dilemma due to adults’ verbal behaviour when choosing mathematics as an optional subject in high school. The study results have educational implications in terms of the way teachers and parents express their viewpoints and interest in mathematics and related subjects may affect students’ interests and attitudes toward mathematics.