The Relationship between Junior Secondary Students’ Characteristics of Mathematics Achievement Emotions and Their Mathematics Performance

Abstract

Although the measurement and evaluation of students’ mathematics achievement emotions have attracted global attention, the relationship between junior secondary students’ mathematics achievement emotions and their impact on mathematics performance remains to be explored. This study examined the characteristics of junior secondary students’ mathematics achievement emotions and their impacts on mathematics performance by investigating 1,423 junior secondary students. By using SPSS and AMOS softwares for data analysis, the findings revealed that, firstly, boys, students in Grade 7, public school students, and key school students had more positive mathematics achievement emotions than girls, students in Grade 8 and Grade 9, private school students, and ordinary school students, respectively. Secondly, students’ mathematics performance was positively correlated with positive achievement emotions and negatively correlated with negative achievement emotions. Thirdly, positive mathematics achievement emotions significantly enhanced students’ affective mathematics learning outcomes, while negative mathematics achievement emotions had a pronounced inhibitory effect on mathematics performance. Therefore, special attention is required to be paid to the “Grade 8 phenomenon,” “girl anxiety,” policy support for high-quality and balanced development of mathematics education, and to facilitate students to achieve success and avoid failure in mathematics performance.

Keywords

mathematics achievement emotions / mathematics learning / junior secondary students

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Higher Education Press