An investigation on maths anxiety and problem solving skills of high school students

This study aimed to examine the relationship between high school students' math anxiety and problem solving skills in daily life. In order to determine the participants' math anxiety level they were given "Math Anxiety Scale". The "Problem Solving Scale" was utilized to determine the students' daily life problem solving skills. The sample consists of 631 students from six state high schools (Anatolian High School, Technical and Vocational High School, Maritime Vocational High School, Imam-Hatip High school) in Tuzla and Pendik municipalities in Istanbul. The data was analyzed with SPSS-15 for Windows packet program. The data from two group was analyzed with independent t-test and the data showing normal distribution from more than two groups was analyzed with Anova analysis. The results revealed that the problem solving skills altogether explained %20 of variance of math anxiety. The factors of problem solving were ordered in relative importance to explain the math anxiety are avoident, impulsive, reflective, self-confident, organized approaches to problem-solving. The analyses regarding the results of t-test related the significant value of the regression analysis of t-test showed that only the impulsive, reflective and self-confident approaches to the daily life- problems have the significant predictive factors for math anxiety. The results of this study were discussed within the lines of related literature and new suggestions were produced for the future research related the topic of this study. Key: Maths, maths anxiety, problem, , solving problem, high school students, daily life.