Assessment of anxiety on mathematics for students in secondary school in Qatar

Abstract

Various factors including gender, anxiety, parent socio-economic status and school-specific aspects affect mathematics performance. An analysis of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012 data on mathematics performance for secondary school students in Qatar was undertaken. This data includes information on student anxiety and gender among other student and school factors that may potentially impact learning outcomes in the form of mathematics test scores. Results indicate a negative statistically significant relationship between mathematics anxiety and mathematics test scores. This inverse relationship was supported after adjustment was made for other factors that may also potentially affect mathematics performance, indicating lower mathematics scores, on average, among anxious students. It is hypothesised that an attributing factor to the observed association between mathematics anxiety and mathematics performance may be the teaching strategies used that may not adequately attend to the cognitive and psychological needs of students. The degree to which teaching strategies implemented attend to the cognitive and psychological needs of students is a potential area that could be targeted to help improve learning outcomes among students studying mathematics at secondary school. This study assesses the efficacy of various teaching approaches and comparatively assesses their impact on mathematic performance in relation to anxiety levels among students. The implications of this research on suggestions for potential changes to current teaching strategies to acknowledge the potential impact that mathematics anxiety has on outcomes in mathematics is discussed. It is proposed that teaching strategies in Qatar could potentially be reviewed with a view to better cater to the needs of students who are quite anxious about studying mathematics, in an attempt to improve the performance of students nationally as, at present, mathematics performance of students in Qatar is considerably lower than global average standards. Although the average mathematics scores were not significantly different between male and female students, it was observed that males were significantly more anxious compared with females.