Early and recurring experiences & students' attitudes and anxiety towards general mathematics

This study is descriptive research, which attempted to look into the mathematical experiences and perceptions of 100 senior high students enrolled in General Mathematics at Holy Name University, academic year 2018-2019. Journals written by the respondents based on pointers culled from a mathography and utilized the modified attitude survey questionnaires. The random sampling was used, by sending questionnaires to the selected senior high students who enrolled general math subject. The researcher sought permission from the person-in-authority to administer the questionnaire and thematic analysis and descriptive statistics were utilized by the researchers. Findings revealed that mathematics is a big frustration, but a great challenge to the students. They confirmed that their achievement in mathematics is affected by their attitudes and anxiety. They indicated that teachers who can feel for them and shows relevance of their lessons to everyday life though varied teaching approaches make mathematics learning nice and easy. It was discovered that majority of the students received their initial counting lessons from their parents, found educational shows and study materials beneficial for learning, favoured addition over subtraction - citing its ease and simplicity. Moreover, the results indicated that there is a moderately negative relationship between anxiety and attitude towards mathematics. If their attitude towards mathematics is positive, most likely the students enjoy performing the task and have low level of anxiety. A negative attitude towards mathematics causes them to dislike the task and have high level of math anxiety. Thus attitude, part of a students’ disposition, influence the level of mathematics anxiety. Students who suffer mathematics anxiety usually failed in any mathematics situation. Findings suggest that teachers, including their personal characteristics, teaching styles and feedbacking, play a crucial role in the mathematics learning process. Their approach to providing opportunities, evaluation, reflection, and assigning follow-up activities significantly influence students’ experiences and perceptions of mathematics.