Abstract:
Mathematics anxiety, an intense emotional feeling of apprehension that manifests when
one engages in mathematical tasks often results in low achievement in mathematics.
Evidence from literature has shown that secondary school students in the Ibadan
Metropolis, Nigeria, exhibit mathematics anxiety. Previous studies focused more on
predictors of mathematics anxiety than on interventions. This study, therefore, was
designed to investigate the effects of Mindfulness Technique (MT) and Systematic
Desensitisation (SD) in the management of mathematics anxiety among secondary school
students in the Ibadan Metropolis, Nigeria. The moderating effects of gender and
mathematics self-efficacy were also determined.
The study was anchored to Deci and Ryan’s Self-Determination Theory, while the
pretest- posttest control group design with a 3x2x3 factorial matrix was adopted. The
multistage sampling procedure was used. The simple random sampling technique was
used to select three (Ibadan North East, Ibadan North and Ibadan South East) out the five
Local Government Areas (LGAs) in the Ibadan Metropolis. Three schools (one from each
LGA) were randomly selected. The students in the selected schools were screened with
Dave Wood Mathematics Anxiety Scale (α=.74) and those who scored 50 points
benchmark and above were selected and assigned to MT (35), SD (36) and control (32)
groups. The instruments used were Betz Mathematics Anxiety (α=.89),Betz and Hackett
Mathematics Efficacy(α = 0.81) scales, and instructional guides. The intervention lasted
eight weeks. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Analysis of covariance and
Scheffe Post-hoc test at 0.05 level of significance.
The majority (65.0%) of the participants were female. There was a significant main effect
of treatment on mathematics anxiety (F(2;85) = 3.77; partialῆ2 = 0.08). The participants in
the MT had the least mean score (36.28) on mathematics anxiety, followed by those with
SD (42.27) and the control (48.56) groups. There was a significant main effect of
mathematics self-efficacy on mathematics anxiety (F(2;85) = 4.81; partial ῆ2 = 0.10).The
participants with high mathematics self-efficacy had the least mathematics anxiety mean
score (32.33), followed by those in the moderate (43.50) and low (44.53) mathematics
self-efficacy groups. There was a significant interaction effect of treatment and
mathematics self-efficacy on mathematics anxiety (F(4;85)= 4.08; partialῆ2 = 0.16) in
favour of the participants with high mathematics self-efficacy (32.33) in the MT group.
There was no significant main effect of gender on mathematics anxiety. The two-way
interaction effect of treatment and gender as well as the three-way interaction effect were
not significant.
Mindfulness and systematic desensitisation techniques reduced mathematics anxiety of
the secondary students, in the Ibadan Metropolis, Nigeria with special attention to
mathematics self-efficacy. Educational and counselling psychologists should utilise these
interventions to manage mathematics anxiety among the public secondary school
students.
