| dc.description.abstract | In the 2022 PISA results, Taiwanese middle school students ranked third in mathematics. However, their mathematics anxiety is above average. Despite their excellent performance, prolonged math anxiety may affect their psychological state and learning effectiveness. Balancing high math achievement with reducing students′ math anxiety has become one of the most important issues in the education field. This research aims to reduce middle school students’ mathematics anxiety and improve their mathematics learning effectiveness through mathematics peer tutoring, it is hoped that it can be used in the teaching field in the future.
This study employs a waiting list control group design and selects two first-grade junior high school classes with comparable mathematics proficiency and balanced gender distribution, totaling 49 students (25 in the experimental group and 24 in the control group). The study lasted four weeks, with two times teaching interventions per week, each lasting thirty minutes. In the intervention, the peer tutoring approach allowed students to discuss practice problems within their small groups after completing them, while the traditional instruction involved the teacher directly reviewing the problems after completion. In the first two weeks, the experimental group underwent peer tutoring, while the control group received traditional instruction. After the first two weeks of intervention, both groups took the first post-test. In the next two weeks, the instructions of the two groups were exchanged. The experimental group received traditional instruction, and the control group received peer tutoring. Both groups took the second post-test after the last two weeks.
The data was collected three times. Each test included students’ math anxiety, exam pressure and math scores. First, examine the correlation between students′ mathematics anxiety and mathematics scores. Then, explore the impact of peer tutoring and traditional instruction on mathematics anxiety and mathematics scores. Finally, examine whether mathematics anxiety is a mediated effect between different instructions and mathematics scores.
The research findings revealed that: (1) Students′ mathematics anxiety and mathematics performance were negatively correlated(r = -.50**). After mathematics peer tutoring, mathematics anxiety and mathematics performance were still negatively correlated(r = -.30*); (2) The mathematics anxiety of students in the peer tutoring group has decreased (effect size = .10), but there is no improvement in mathematics scores. However, the mathematics scores of students in the traditional instruction group has improved slightly (effect size = .24); (3) Mathematics anxiety is not the mediated effect between different instructions and mathematics performance. | en_US |