Innovative Classroom Strategy: Impact on Students’ Mathematics Motivation, Anxiety and Achievement in Pre-University Studies

One aspect that influences mathematics achievement is students' mathematics motivation, which is closely related to their mathematics anxiety. This study aims to incorporate a classroom intervention strategy using a brain-based teaching approach (BBTA) with technological tools to improve students' mathematics performance in pre-university studies. BBTA was used in the classroom to increase students’ mathematics interest and minimise their mathematics anxiety to increase mathematics performance. Two hundred and six (206) pre-university students were exposed to both BBTA and conventional instructions during their Statistic lessons. Questionnaire comprises of motivation and anxiety-related questions as well as pre and post mathematics tests were administered to these students. Based on the findings, students with low anxiety appeared to have more self-confidence when studying mathematics, which simultaneously improved their examination results. These two elements are critical in students' learning of mathematics because students who have low levels of anxiety and high levels of motivation in learning mathematics attain high achievement in mathematics.

Can a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Approach Enhance Students’ Mathematics Performance?

The STEM approach is a student-centred teaching and learning process that involves an inquiry process in problem-solving questions. This study was conducted to examine the effectiveness of the STEM approach in enhancing students’ mathematics performance. The study used a quasi-experimental design of unbalanced groups through the pre-test and post-test for treatment and control groups. The instrument included a set of questionnaires on student attitudes towards STEM implementation and the three-dimensional geometric shapes achievement test. The research samples included 14-year-old students from one of the private secondary schools in Kuching, which involved 68 students who were selected using purposive sampling. The results showed that student attitudes towards the implementation of the STEM approach were at a moderate level. In addition, the results illustrated a significant and moderate difference in mathematics performance between students who participated in the STEM approach and the conventional method using pre-test and post-test. The mean score of the post-test performance for the STEM approach was higher compared to the mean score of post-test performance for the conventional method. The results of the study demonstrated that the implementation of the STEM approach that involved both inquiry-based learning and problem-based learning was effective and able to improve the students’ academic performance. This can help teachers to vary their teaching and learning methods by increasing student interactions and engagement. Improvements can be made in the future by adding more research samples to expand the context of the study and prolong the treatment duration. Researchers can also add research variables in future studies by examining student interests and motivations towards the STEM approach.

Learning Styles and Instructional Materials as Correlates of Grade 6 Learners`' Mathematics Performance in Buffalo City, South Africa

Mathematics is a core subject in South Africa. Studies have shown that the performance of learners on this subject is not encouraging. Many factors have been alluded to by scholars as contributing factors to this poor performance. The gap between theory and practice of mathematics teaching can be bridged by the use of appropriate learning styles, availability, and utilization of instructional. This paper finds out the relationship that exists among learning styles, instructional materials, and mathematics performance of Grade 6. The choice of Grade 6 is important because it is the last grade level of primary school before a learner can enter secondary school level in South Africa. The study adopted a correlational research design of a quantitative approach. Stratified sampling techniques were used to select 1225 learners from Grade 6 schools within Buffalo City Metropolitan Education District. The data revealed among others that in Buffalo City, availability and utilization of instructional materials have no significant relationship with the mathematics performance of selected grade 6 learners (B=.023, t=.804, P≥0.05) while students learning styles (visual, auditory, and kinaesthetic) have a significant relationship with grade 6 learners Mathematics performance (B=-.113, t=-3.886, p<0.05). The study concluded that one of the most fundamental issues to consider in improving Mathematics performance is the understanding of the learners’ learning styles and effective use of appropriate instructional materials for teaching Mathematics.

The Antecedents and Consequences of Metacognitive Knowledge in Mathematics Learning: A Self-Determination Perspective

Grounded in the self-determination theory and the metacognitive and affective model of self-regulated learning, this study investigated the longitudinal relationship of self-determined motivation as the antecedent and academic performance as the consequence of metacognitive knowledge (MK) in mathematics learning. Two waves of data were collected from senior high school students (N = 327) in the second semester in Grades 10 and 11. A longitudinal mediation model was analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results revealed that autonomous motivation was positively related to MK of competence-enhancing strategies and negatively related to MK of avoidance strategies. Furthermore, mathematics performance was positively predicted by MK of cognitive/metacognitive strategies and negatively predicted by MK of avoidance strategies. This study expands the understanding of MK and elaborates on the dynamics between MK, self-determined motivation, and mathematics performance. Especially, this study differentiates the MK of adaptive and maladaptive strategies and examines their motivational antecedents and academic effects. Our findings also suggest that autonomous motivation has longitudinal benefits on MK.

SELF-EFFICACY AND ATTITUDE AS PREDICTORS OF MATHEMATICS PERFORMANCE OF SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

This study determined the relationship of self-efficacy, attitude, and performance in mathematics of senior high school students. Specifically, the study (a) described the level of mathematics self-efficacy of studentrespondents in terms of mastery experience, vicarious experience-peers, vicarious experience-adults, social persuasions, and physiological state, (b) characterized the attitude of the student-respondents towards mathematics in terms of anxiety, confidence, enjoyment, and benefits/value, (c) described the mathematics performance of the respondents, (d) determined the significant relationship between self-efficacy, attitude, and mathematics performance of the respondents, and (e) determined the predictors of students mathematics performance. Simple random sampling was used in identifying the 229 samples from three (3) public secondary schools offering senior high school in the Tablas Island. The researchers used the validated Self-Efficacy and Attitude towards Mathematics questionnaire. It was found out that the student-respondents have moderate mathematics self-efficacy in mastery experience, vicarious experience-peers, vicarious experience-adults, social persuasions, and physiological state. It was also found out that there was a high level of attitude towards mathematics in terms of benefits/value and moderate level of attitude towards mathematics in terms of anxiety, confidence, and enjoyment. Majority of the student-respondents did not meet the expectations in terms of mathematics performance, but a significant percentage of the group was average in the acceptable range of rating as significant relationship exists between self-efficacy, attitude and mathematics performance. The study revealed that the mathematics performance was predicted by variables such as vicarious experience-adults, benefits/value, anxiety, and vicarious experience-peers.

The Roles of Initial Mathematics, Reading, and Cognitive Skills in Subsequent Mathematics Performance: A Meta-Analytic Structural Equation Modeling Approach

In the present meta-analysis, we systematically investigated the relative contributions of students’ initial mathematics, reading, and cognitive skills on subsequent mathematics performance measured at least 3 months later. With one-stage meta-analytic structural equation modeling, we conducted analyses based on 580,437 students from 265 independent samples and 250 studies. Findings suggested fluency in both mathematics and reading, as well as working memory, yielded greater impacts on subsequent mathematics performance. Age emerged as a significant moderator in the model, such that the effects of comprehensive mathematics and working memory on subsequent mathematics increased with age, whereas attention and self-regulation’s impacts declined with age. Time lag between assessments also emerged as a significant moderator, such that the effects of word-problem solving and word recognition accuracy decreased as the time lag increased, whereas vocabulary, attention, and self-regulation’s effects increased as the time lag increased.