Mathematics Anxiety in Secondary School Teachers of Bangladesh: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

Secondary education considers as preparatory stage of life of any student and it prepare quality students for tertiary education. Like other country Bangladesh also wants to produce more productive and loyal citizens through its secondary education. Mathematics is one of the important subjects among other compulsory subjects at secondary level. Mathematics plays an important role in developing scientific knowledge and technological advancement. So, student‘s weakness in this subject is not expected. But Bangladesh has backward in respect of mathematics education and it is not up to the mark. To keep pace with the present world we have to build up our expertise in mathematics. Mathematics can consider as a gatekeeper for better employment. Mathematics education is needed for the safety of a nation and quality of life and even the prosperity of a nation. Mathematics anxiety has been an important and also a common problem in learning and teaching from elementary through university levels for the last three decades. Math anxiety is a kind of problem facing by students and teachers where the main cause of math anxiety is the teacher himself. On the other hand, the greatest prevention of math anxiety is the teacher himself. Highly anxious math teachers might unintentionally transfer their negative feelings, avoidance and fear of mathematics to students. To improve the quality teaching at first we should know about the existence of math anxiety among secondary math teachers. The general objective of the study is to explore the status of mathematics anxiety in secondary math teachers of Bangladesh. This study was exploratory in nature and quantitative in method used to collect and analyze the data. The instrument was administered to check the validity and reliability after translation into Bangla out of the original sample area. Then data were collected from the participants by using the Bangla version (MAMTS-B) of original scale (MAMTS) with demographic questions. Exploratory factor analysis, pearson correlation coefficient, regression analysis, ANOVA and t-test were performed to analyze and interpret the data. The 4 divisions were selected considering regional variations and 2 districts from each division. Finally, 2 upazilas were selected conveniently from each district and 3 schools were selected from each upzila. Thus 48 schools and all of the teachers who taught mathematics of 48 schools were considered as sample. A total of 242 mathematics teachers (male 193 and female 49) were included as participants from 48 different schools.

The average age of the teachers was 40 years and majority (58.7%) of the teachers‘ age was up to 40. Again majority (70.7%) of the teachers experienced were within 20 years. 50.4% secondary math teachers did not have mathematics as a subject at their graduation level. 54.1% secondary math teachers did not have any training in mathematics. 82.2% secondary math teachers did not have any master degree or have master degree but in other subjects without mathematics and only13.6% were master degree with honors in mathematics. It was found that 12.8% secondary math teachers experienced low level of mathematics anxiety, 76% experienced moderate level and 11.2% experienced high level of mathematics anxiety. It was also found that 11.6% secondary math teachers experienced low level of mathematics teaching anxiety, 78.1% experienced moderate level and 10.3% experienced high level of mathematics teaching anxiety. Females had more anxiety than males for mathematics but not in mathematics teaching. The difference between urban and rural teachers in personal math anxiety and math teaching anxiety were not significant. The personal math anxiety score and math teaching anxiety score were slightly differed on professional education but the difference was not significant. There was a significant difference between the teachers who taken or not mathematics as a subject at their graduation level both on personal math anxiety and math teaching anxiety. Teachers who were trained in mathematics there personal math anxiety score and math teaching anxiety score were higher than who were not trained and it‘s were significant at 99% confidence level. Personal mathematics anxiety and mathematics teaching anxiety were highly associated (r = 0.89), where mathematics teaching anxiety was 79% dependent on mathematics anxiety. The study recommended that only subject teacher should teach mathematics. Educational qualification for secondary math teachers may at least master degree in mathematics. All teachers are needed training in mathematics because subject based training can reduce ones anxiety level and improve confidence. The study has been organized into five chapters. Chapter one describes introduction that includes background, statement of the problem, rationale of the study, objectives of the study, research questions and operational definition. Chapter two deals with literature review. Chapter three focuses on methodology. Chapter four presents data analysis and findings. Finally chapter five describes discussion and conclusions.