Abstract:

Anxiety is a component that is found to have a negative impact on the student’s ability to achieve a conceptual understanding of mathematics at the high school level. Various factors contribute to the situation where anxiety ultimately dominates the learning environment. Anxiety in Geometry may also lead to students’ low self-efficacy, as their poor performance caused them to be uncomfortable and avoid mathematics because of fear of performing poorly in the subject. Furthermore, studies describe anxiety in school mathematics as characterized by features such as limited ability by the teacher to be flexible and approach the subject within the context of the students’ frame of reference.

The purpose of the study was to find how anxious students feel about Geometry in the last three years of high school. The participants were 390 Grade 10-12 mathematics students from Mpumalanga and North West provinces in South Africa. A mixed-methods approach was utilized following the convergent parallel sequential design. Qualitative data was collected using a survey questionnaire with open-ended questions to determine how anxious students are about Geometry. The adapted Johnsons’ Geometry Students Self-Efficacy questionnaire was used for the collection of quantitative data. Atlas.ti was used to analyze qualitative data. The quantitative aspects were analyzed with SPSS. Findings indicate that students worry that they might answer poorly when they are asked any Geometry question. The results also revealed that students were worried and concerned about their poor performance in Geometry. More than half (61%) of the students felt inadequate as far as Geometry is concerned. The results also revealed that 71% of the students indicated that they were worried that they might give a wrong answer when the teacher asked questions. It is recommended that teachers be trained on how to present Geometry in a flexible manner that accommodates students’ basic understanding of the subject.

Keywords:

Euclidean Geometry, mathematics, student anxiety, self-efficacy, high school.