Math Attitude and Math Anxiety of STEM Students Needs More Attention

• Authors: Monika Szczygieł

Abstracts

EN

The issue of math attitude and math anxiety in STEM students has been till now overlooked. However, the issue occurring in many countries is students’ falling out of the STEM education system during their studies. One of the reasons for this problem may be high math anxiety and a negative math attitude among students. The present study fills a gap in knowledge about this phenomenon among STEM students. 371 Polish STEM students filled questionnaires of math attitude (MASA) and math anxiety (MAQA, SIMA, AMAS). The results are as follow: The mean results show that STEM students have a very positive math attitude in affective and cognitive dimensions and a rather positive math attitude in the behavioral area; On average, STEM students feel very weak anxiety related to math problem solving, weak general math anxiety and math learning anxiety, and a moderate level of math testing anxiety; Among STEM students there are those who present a very negative/negative math attitude and very strong/strong math anxiety; Women feel more intense anxiety related to math problem solving, but there is no gender gap in general math anxiety, math learning and math testing anxiety, and in math attitude. The results suggest that math attitude and math anxiety of STEM students should be monitored. Indeed, not all STEM students have a positive math attitude and feel no math anxiety. Moreover, proper interventions are recommended to decrease math anxiety and improve positive math attitude that in turn may prevent the students’ dropping out from STEM studies.

Keywords

EN

math attitude; math anxiety; STEM students; STEM education

• Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk
• Journal: Polish Psychological Bulletin
• Year: 2022
• Volume: 53
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 203-211

Dates

published

2022

Contributors

author

Monika Szczygieł

• Pedagogical University of Cracow, Poland

• https://orcid.org/0000000165440734

Identifiers

DOI

10.24425/ppb.2022.141868

Biblioteka Nauki

55796014