Mathematics Anxiety and Students’ Learning Styles: Inputs for an Instructional Development Plan

This study described and examined the mathematics anxiety and students’ learning styles from selected public secondary schools in the Philippines. The study used a descriptive-correlation research design which was participated by 300 randomly selected learners. A researcher-made survey-questionnaire was utilized. Results revealed that mathematics anxiety is part of learners learning acquisition experiences as they navigate the complexities of concepts, theories and principles in mathematics. With this, learners experienced multifaceted forms of anxiety which involved their personal, environmental and educational dimensions. As they learn, they immensely encounter fear of learning mathematical concepts. While learners experienced different forms of mathematics anxiety, they also utilized different learning styles to significantly address their anxiety. Significantly, they find interactions and games more useful in reducing their stresses and fear in learning math. In addition, learners who show higher level of mathematics anxiety tend to use visual learning styles as learning strategies. Hence, learners who tend to perform hands-on activities are more likely to experience higher level of anxiety in mathematics. Likewise, personal math anxiety is associated with visual and kinesthetic learning. This study recommends the consideration of the above inputs for the development of instructional development plan in mathematics emphasizing learners’ mathematics anxiety and learning styles.