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International Journal of Scientific & Technology Research

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IJSTR >> Volume 8 - Issue 12, December 2019 Edition



International Journal of Scientific & Technology Research  
International Journal of Scientific & Technology Research

Website: http://www.ijstr.org

ISSN 2277-8616



Is it True That Mathematics Anxiety Has A Bad Impact on Problem-Solving Skills?

[Full Text]

 

AUTHOR(S)

Surya Sari Faradiba, Alifiani, Abdul Halim Fathani, Ganjar Setyo Widodo, Siti Nurul Hasana, Sikky El Walida, Isbadar Nursit, Anies Fuady

 

KEYWORDS

DOTS, MAS, mathematics anxiety, problem-solving.

 

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to examine how students who experience high mathematics anxiety solve mathematical word problems. This research involved 40 math students of Universitas Islam Malang from 26 out of 34 provinces in Indonesia. From the 40 populations, five subjects were selected on the basis of their high score in Mathematics Anxiety Scale (MAS) questionnaire. Furthermore, these five subjects worked on problem-solving problems. The answers of the five subjects were analysed based on DOTS (Detect, Organize, Transform, and Solve) problem-solving criteria. The results of this study indicate there are two types of problem solving done by the subjects. First, four subjects solved the problem by doing DOTS steps. In this case, the subjects can detect the problem structure, but they have difficulties in applying arithmetic operations both in numerical and algebraic expressions. Interestingly, one of the four subjects can organize the information, but she misapplies commutative as well as associative properties when carrying out subtractions/divisions and fails to use distributive property of multiplication over addition. Meanwhile, the other one subject can do the DOTS steps at the same time. From these five subjects, it can be seen that mathematics anxiety does not always lead to failure in problem-solving. This can be seen in the fifth subject that shows good performance on problem-solving and goes through the DOTS steps at the same time.

 

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