Secondary school students mathematics anxiety levels and attitudes toward mathemati̇cs

In this research, it is aimed to examine the attitudes of secondary school students towards mathematics anxiety and mathematics course. The population of the study consists of 28 secondary schools, which are located in Torbalı district of İzmir province in 2018/2019 academic year, and the total number of students in these schools is 10511. The sample size was determined as 371 students and the ratios were determined by the stratified sampling method from the middle school educational institutions in the district of Torbalı and the selection of the units was carried out by simple random sampling method. In this study, the questionnaire was used as data collection tool and the study was completed within the scope of quantitative research methods. The data collection tools used in the study are "Personal Information Form (APPENDIX 1)", "Attitude Scale towards Mathematics (APPENDIX 2)" and "Elementary Students Mathematical Anxiety Scale (APPENDIX 3)". Attitudes towards mathematics used in the study and the distribution of the scores of the students from the Mathematics Anxiety Scale were analyzed using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. According to this, the scores obtained from the scales did not conform to the distribution of the norm and non-parametric tests were used to examine the differentiation of the scores obtained from the scales according to the personal information of the students. The Mann-Whitney U test was used for comparison of the two groups and Kruskal-Wallis H test was used for comparison of three and three groups. Dunn's test was used for nonparametric multiple comparison tests in order to determine the differences between the groups as a result of Kruskal-Wallis H test. The findings of the study were evaluated with a 95% confidence interval. The Attitude Scale for Mathematics and the Cronbach Alpha coefficient were used for the reliability of the Primary School Students' Mathematics Anxiety Scale Analysis. As a result, it was determined that the scores of secondary school students' Attitude Scale towards Mathematics and their scores on Mathematics Anxiety Scale for Elementary School Students differ according to gender, class, father's education level and mathematics achievement. It was found that the mother did not differ according to the education level. In addition, secondary school students' interest in mathematics lesson, study tenacity and belief level of the validity of mathematics course were found to be inversely related to mathematics lesson anxiety.