Anxiety In Mathematics And Its Relationship To Pivotal Thinking Skills Among Middle School Students

Abstract

    The current research aimed to identify the level of anxiety in mathematics, and its relationship to pivotal thinking skills among middle school students. The research sample consisted of (400) male and female students from the third intermediate grade students in the General Directorates of Education / Baghdad / Rusafa and Karkh during the first semester of the academic year 2022-2023, with (200) male and (200) female students. For the purposes of this study, the researcher adopted the Mathematics Anxiety Scale (MARS), which was prepared by (Abed and Yaqoub, 1990) after its modification and re-rationalization on the Iraqi environment. A test was also prepared in pivotal thinking skills for students of the third intermediate grade, consisting of (21) essay items. Checking the apparent validity and the constructive validity of the two search tools, and the Couder-Richardson equation (20) and Cronbach alpha were used to calculate the stability, which amounted to (0.87) and (0.81), respectively. The results revealed that the male and female students of the research sample have very high scores in the anxiety scale in mathematics, and that the anxiety of mathematics is higher for females compared to males, and that the male and female students of the research sample have scores lower than the hypothetical average in the pivotal thinking skills test. The results indicated that there is an inverse statistically significant correlation between math anxiety and pivotal thinking skills, that is, the greater the math anxiety, the lower the pivotal thinking skills. The researcher recommended working on developing the curricula in general and the mathematics curricula in particular for the students of the third intermediate grade and adopting a variety of methods in teaching them, so that students can use them without difficulty, and the need to include programs for preparing mathematics teachers topics on pivotal thinking skills and their educational applications in all educational stages, and holding meetings Guidance by specialists to address students' math anxiety. It suggests conducting a study showing the relationship between the level of anxiety and classroom performance of newly appointed teachers, and conducting a study to find out the extent to which mathematics teachers have pivotal thinking skills.