Mathematics Anxiety and Secondary School Students’ Academic Performance in Fako Division, South West Region of Cameroon

Abstract

Secondary school students’ poor performances in mathematics have frequently been reported and continue to be a preoccupying issue in both curriculum design and its implementation. Though many factors could account for this, very little is known about students’ mathematics anxiety and the role it plays in undermining students’ overall performance in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in Fako Division, South West Region of Cameroon. The main objective of the study was to investigate the effect of mathematics anxiety on secondary school students’ academic performance in Fako Division. This study used a descriptive survey research design. The target population of the study was 15,195 students from all secondary schools in Fako Division and the accessible population was 1,200 students from 8 secondary schools. The sample of the study consisted of 375 secondary school students made up 133 males and 242 females. The proportionate stratified random sampling technique was used. Data for mathematics anxiety were collected through a questionnaire and mathematics performance was measured through documentary analysis from which students’ scores from the regional mock exams of 2022 were obtained. The questionnaire items had content validity indices (CVIs) between 0.8 and 0.9 and a reliability coefficient ? = 0.895 which implied that the questionnaire was valid and reliable for the study. Path analysis was used as the method of data analysis. Results revealed that mathematics test anxiety had a significant negative effect on students’ performance in mathematics while mathematics calculation anxiety had a significant positive effect on students’ performance in mathematics. Mathematics subject anxiety had a negative impact on mathematics performance but this effect was not significant while mathematics classroom anxiety had no significant effect on students’ performance in mathematics. Students’ mean mathematics anxiety levels significantly differed by gender, age group and school type. Though mathematics anxiety had a positive effect on students’ performance in mathematics, that effect was not significant but it however significantly explained 3.3% of the total variance in students’ performance in mathematics. Students’ school type moderated the relationship between mathematics anxiety and students’ performance in mathematics. Mathematics situation-specific anxieties effect on mathematics subject anxiety was twice as strong compared to the impact that mathematics subject anxiety had on students’ situation-specific mathematics anxiety. Results have implications for the debilitating theory and cognitive constructivism in that mathematics anxiety leads to poor mathematics performance while students can construct solid conceptual knowledge when they find task interesting, relevant and consistent with their experiences. Interventions to help students overcome mathematics test anxiety and proper lesson evaluation strategies were recommended.