ABSTRACT
The quantitative study aimed to determine the relationship between Mathematics self-efficacy and anxiety of Grade 11 learners of Mandurriao National High School, District V-A, Mandurriao, Iloilo City during the school year 2023-2024. The descriptive method and descriptive-correlational research design were used in the study. Respondents of the study were the 232 Grade 11 learners who were taken randomly from the total population of 551 learners. All of the Grade 11 learners, regardless of sex or strand, had a high level of self-efficacy. The overall amount of anxiety that Grade 11 learners displayed in relation to Mathematics was high. When the learners were sorted by sex, the male learners showed a high level of Mathematics anxiety, while the female learners showed a moderate level. Results showed that the relationship between the level of learners’ self-efficacy and their level of anxiety in Mathematics subject were significant when classified according to sex and strands.
Keywords: Relationship, Mathematics, Learners’Mathematics Self-Efficacy, Learners’ Anxiety
INTRODUCTION
It has been said that Mathematics is a fundamental subject. The first stage in the professionalization of Mathematics instructors is achieving excellence in teaching. With this, Mathematics teachers should strive to obtain a top-notch education to accomplish this. Indeed, education authorities should emphasize the importance of learners’ problem-solving and computation skills.
Teacher Education institutions (TEIs) aims to provide prospective Math teachers with the best possible education through course options internship or field experience, and support systems.
Teaching Mathematics is particularly challenging because of the issues that educators especially Math teachers confront nowadays. The most important difficulty is the breadth and depth of Mathematics curriculum that educators should be proficient in.
For instance, the conviction held by an elementary school Math teacher that any integer splits by zero is also zero, thus, demonstrates how severely our Math teachers lack thorough comprehension of the subject matter. This has a lot to do with how unprepared our Math teachers are in selecting effective teaching methods for delivering certain subject matter to groups of learners. Poorly qualified Math teachers frequently exhibit two similar behaviors. They either teach advanced skills to learners who lack the necessary background knowledge or abilities, or they teach deficient levels of skills to able learners. Teachers of Mathematics also find difficulty in the implementation process.
The Mathematics taught in schools today is the result of centuries worth of research, experimentation, and discoveries made by Mathematicians over many years of arduous work, both individually and together. Learning Mathematics is a difficult and takes time. The time, energy, and resources that our forebears have dedicated to learning and comprehending Mathematics are things that today’s Math learners must likewise devote.
Further, teachers need to understand how curriculum, instruction, and assessment are all aligned, and that learners need to have the appropriate attitudes. It can be possible if educators continually evaluate their instruction, that is, consider whether the learners have learned and retained the material that is supposed to be taught. Instruction can also serve as a diagnostic tool that can assist in spotting misconceptions. It can offer educational opportunities for the learners to achieve conceptual shifts and get the most out of their education.
However, it’s not necessary for the applicability of Mathematics being taught to be instantly apparent. Even though it doesn’t seem to apply to everyday life, some fundamental mathematical concepts are nonetheless important to teach. To keep Mathematics understandable for the learners and prevent anxiety in them, Math teachers in these situations need to be able to, at the very least, speak the language of the learners. This means being aware of the language that the learners speak, any jargon they may use, and all accompanying nuances of their language.
Taking into consideration all of the previously mentioned factors, the goal of this study is to ascertain the level of self-efficacy and anxiety of learners when learning Mathematics and whether or not these are connected to their success in learning Mathematics subject.
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