Citation

Shafee, Rahman and Ab Razak, Ruzanna and Mohd Fauzi, Nurazlin (2022) "Modelling Learner Growth for The Management of Math Anxiety and Fostering Achievement Through Resilience". In: Postgraduate Social Science Colloquium 2022, 1 - 2 June 2022, Online.

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Abstract

Background - Mathematics plays an important part in our lives. Math is often a required course in nonscience programmes such business, economics, social sciences and many others. Although there are programmes that do not need a math subject, basic math skills are necessities for living a good life. Tasks such as budgeting and managing daily expenses, buying a house or car, paying back a mortgage and estimating household inventories require one to have good calculation skills. In today’s techoriented world, companies tend to recruit graduates with excellent analytical and reasoning skills in order to work with data thus leading to effective business decision-making. As the data supply are increasing significantly, there are more need for analysts in organizations such as management analyst, business analyst, operations analyst, and marketing analyst. Hence, math-related subjects in business programmes are greatly needed for building solid foundation of analytical and reasoning skills. Presently, Malaysia is striving to become a fully developed country thus science, mathematics and technology have become a focus in its educational system. The number of enrolments into non-STEM programmes have increased due to declining achievement in Mathematics at secondary school level. At tertiary education level, basic mathematics subject in non-science programmes is feared by many students and parents. The math performance universities and colleges continue to be an issue. One of contributing factors to low math performance is math anxiety. Math anxiety is a state of tension, uneasiness, or worry when encountering activity associated with math. Due to limited studies of math anxiety in the higher education sector, more investigation of its associated factors is needed, with a focus on criteria and methods to help students overcome their fears. Mathematical resilience is crucial to foster better achievement in math. This study bridges the gap by investigating the role of resilience as a moderator of the relationship between math anxiety and achievement. Purpose - The purpose of this research is to investigate to what extent math anxiety negatively influences math achievement at the university level. Secondly, there will be investigation on math resilience whether it moderates the relationship between math anxiety and math achievement. Lastly, to examine whether females display higher levels of math anxiety than males. Design/methodology/approach - This study is quantitative and deductive in nature. The participants for the study would be undergraduate business and management students from public and private universities in the Klang Valley area. So, the unit of analysis is individuals. The sampling technique in this study will be stratified sampling. Firstly, selection of business schools from each university and representatives from each business school will be contacted. The representatives will provide the total number of students in each business school. A fixed number of students from each business school will be chosen based on the data given by the representatives. Finally, the number of samples to be gathered from each university will be determined. The questionnaire has main 3 sections. The first section assesses students’ math anxiety levels using Betz (1978) version of Maths Anxiety Scale instrument. The second section of the questionnaire assesses students’ mathematical resilience. The questions are developed based on Kooken’s and colleagues (2013) Mathematical Resilience Scale (MRS) instrument. The third section captures students’ math achievement in math subjects during the previous semester. Finally, the questionnaire includes a mandatory section in which participants will be asked about their gender, race, university, and programme of study. For data analysis part, statistical approaches including descriptive statistics, 2-way ANOVA, and structural equation modelling are to be used on the data. Findings/Expected Contributions - The expected findings are how math anxiety influences math achievement at the undergraduate level and math resilience significantly moderates the relationship between math anxiety and math achievement. In addition, learner profiles can be produced according to their math anxiety levels. The learner profiles indicates whether the learner is in their growth, comfort, or anxiety zones. The best teaching and learning practices will be recommended for each learner profile. This research will add to the body of knowledge about whether mathematics anxiety has a negative impact on math achievement in online learning setting. This research will recommend best practices to help educators tackle students’ math anxiety and create math resilience in an online and offline learning environment. Research limitations - This research is limited to business undergraduate students from public and private universities that are in the Klang Valley area. It is not possible to cover all states due to time and resource constraints. Originality/value - Differently from past studies, this research addresses the relationships between math anxiety, math achievement and math resilience in presence of online teaching and learning mode. As online learning is becoming a common mode of learning in the new normal, the outcomes of this research can provide educators with strategies to overcome challenges that comes with the online learning of math and simultaneously improving the quality of education.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Math Anxiety, Math Achievement, Math Resilience, Online Learning
Subjects:	L Education > LB Theory and practice of education L Education > LC Special aspects of education
Divisions:	Faculty of Management (FOM)
Depositing User:	Ms Rosnani Abd Wahab
Date Deposited:	17 Aug 2022 06:49
Last Modified:	17 Aug 2022 06:49
URII:	http://shdl.mmu.edu.my/id/eprint/10406

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