Abstract:

This study investigates emotional, social, and cognitive barriers that affect undergraduate students’ understanding of basic concepts in the teaching and learning of Mathematical Economics. While student difficulties in mathematically oriented economics courses are often attributed to weak technical preparation, classroom evidence suggests a complex picture. The objective is to identify the relative importance and interaction of these barriers and to examine how they influence conceptual understanding, participation, and confidence in Mathematical Economics topics.

The study adopts an empirical mixed-methods design in a higher education setting. Quantitative data were collected through a structured questionnaire administered to undergraduate students enrolled in Mathematical Economics courses. The instrument examined emotional barriers, including mathematics anxiety, fear of making mistakes, and low self-confidence; social barriers, including reluctance to participate, fear of peer judgment, and limited collaborative interaction; and cognitive barriers, including difficulties with abstraction, symbolic interpretation, and connecting mathematical procedures to economic meaning. Qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews. Descriptive statistics identified the most frequently reported barriers, while thematic analysis detected recurring patterns.

The findings show that students’ difficulties in Mathematical Economics cannot be explained by cognitive factors alone. Emotional barriers emerged as particularly influential, as many students reported anxiety when working with formulas, graphs, and symbolic representations, together with uncertainty about their ability to succeed in quantitatively demanding tasks. Social barriers were significant, especially in relation to question-asking, classroom participation, and fear of negative evaluation. At the cognitive level, students reported persistent difficulties in understanding variables, functions, and formal relationships, especially when moving between mathematical representation and economic interpretation. The analysis further suggests that these barriers operate in a mutually reinforcing way: anxiety reduces participation, limited participation reduces opportunities for clarification, and reduced clarification intensifies conceptual confusion. A recurring pattern was that several students could reproduce procedures mechanically without demonstrating clear understanding of the underlying economic logic.

The study indicates that barriers to learning in Mathematical Economics form an interconnected system shaped by emotional, social, and cognitive influences. This has important implications for higher education pedagogy. Improving understanding requires not only clear presentation of content but also teaching practices that reduce anxiety, encourage interaction, and support conceptual meaning-making. The paper argues for a more student-centered instructional approach combining structured scaffolding, active participation, visual explanation, and a classroom climate in which uncertainty is treated as a normal part of learning. By offering empirical evidence on the multidimensional nature of student difficulty in Mathematical Economics, the study contributes to discussions on inclusive and effective teaching in economics education and suggests practical directions for course design and instructional improvement.

Keywords:

Mathematical Economics education, student learning, emotional barriers, cognitive barriers.