Pre-University Students’ Perceptions towards Mathematics in the Post-pandemic Era

The Covid-19 pandemic that had begun in December 2019 had made all students in Malaysia being thrown into the online learning environment. After the prolonged home schooling, the post pandemic era that was declared in the year 2022 forced the students to attend physical classes again. This may have caused confusion among the students as they had to readapt with their old learning style once more after being comfortable with the online environment. In this research, students’ perceptions towards mathematics concerning their self-concept and achievement were explored. Participants of this study were a group of pre-university students who experienced the shift from online to physical classes in the post pandemic era. A set of questionnaires regarding the students’ perceptions was distributed to the students of the pre-university program at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. The results show that 61.3% students discovered mathematics as scary despite they perceived positively on their achievement in mathematics. In conclusion, the students had moderate level of self-concept and achievement. Furthermore, there was a positive correlation between self-concept and achievement in mathematics, and there was no significant gender difference on the students’ self-concept.