Identifying the relationships among the degrees of basic pyschological needs satisfaction, motivation and mathematics anxiety of high school students (10th grade)

The purpose of this study is to identify the relationships among the degrees of basic psychological needs satisfaction (autonomy, competence, and relatedness), motivational regulation for mathematics learning (external, introjected, identified, and integrated), and mathematics anxiety levels of 10th grade students during the process of mathematics learning.The Basic Psychological Needs Scale, which was first used to measure the degrees of basic psychological needs satisfaction of workers and later adapted by Gagne (2003) to everyday life, was translated into Turkish and adapted to mathematics education. To measure motivational regulations, Academic Self-Regulation Questionnaire developed by Ryan and Connell (1989) was translated into Turkish and adapted to Turkish culture and mathematics education. Mathematics Anxiety Scale developed by Erol (1989) was used to measure students? mathematics anxiety (as cited in Ertkin, Dönmez ve Özel, 2006: 28).This study is an explorative correlational research for it analyzed the relationships among several variables. The study was conducted with 10th grade students who took mathematics courses during 2010-2011 in Bolu, Turkey. The pilot study was implemented with 230 students within three high schools and 168 students responded the questionnaires. The main study was conducted with 540 students within 9 high schools and 440 students responded the questionnaires. According to Kolmogorov-Smirnov test results, the variables were not normally distributed. Therefore, Spearman Brown correlation coefficients were used to analyze the relationships among the variables.The analyses showed that as the degree of self-determination in motivational regulations increased, the correlation between these regulations and mathematics anxiety decreased and the correlation between these motivational regulations and the degrees of the basic psychological needs satisfaction increased. Moreover, there was a low positive correlation between mathematics anxiety and externally regulated motivation which is the least self-determined and a low negative correlation between math anxiety and intrinsic motivation which is the most self-determined.This research shows an adaptation of Self-Determination Theory to mathematics education. Moreover, with this study, Academic Self-Regulation Scale, which measures motivational regulation degree towards mathematics learning and the Basic Psychological Needs Satisfaction Scale, which is used to measure the degree of basic psychological needs satisfaction in the process of mathematics teaching, were gained in Turkish literature. According to result of this study, when the degree of the basic psychological needs satisfaction was high, the level of individual?s self-determination in motivational regulations increased, and based on this, mathematics anxiety decreased. This result stressed that students? basic psychological needs must be satisfied during their mathematics education in order to help them develop motivation towards mathematics by themselves and reduce their mathematics anxiety.