CHAPTER 2
REVIEW OR RELATED LITERATURE
LOCAL
Mathematics is often perceived as a challenging subject by students, leading
to widespread struggles and a general dislike for the subject. This
perception is rooted in the inherent complexity of mathematical concepts
and the abstract nature of the subject, which can be difficult for student to
grasp. The difficulty in learning mathematics is compounded by the
challenges teachers face in effectively conveying these concepts in a way
that is engaging and comprehensible. As a result, many students
experience anxiety and frustration when dealing with mathematics,
which negatively impacts their performance. Researchers (Attard, 2012;
Mata, Monteiro, & Peixoto, 2012) have identified important factors
contributing to students' attitudes towards learning mathematics. These
include the students themselves, the school, the teachers' beliefs, and
attitudes, and their teaching methods. The teachers' teaching method
significantly influences students' attitudes (Mensah et al., 2013). Teachers
can do many things to facilitate classroom learning to alleviate
students' engagement level andconfidence in learning mathematics (Attard,
2012; Kele & Sharma, 2014). This can be achieved by implementing
meaningful activities embedded in real-life contexts (Kacerja, 2012).
Students' attitudes toward learning mathematics significantly impact
students’ engagement and performance. Sanchal and Sharma identified
three components attitudes: confidence in mathematics, the perceived
importance of mathematics, and emotional attachment to the subject.
Confidence helps students engage actively and persist through challenges.
Understanding the importance of mathematics motivates students by
showing real-world applications and relevance to their future. Positive
emotions, like curiosity and interest, encourage students to explore and
enjoy learning math. These attitudes are important for success, and
educators can influence them by creating a supportive and engaging
learning environment. The study conducted by Mogensen (2011) revealed
that experiences result in changes in the brain and suggest that motivation
should be affected and treated seriously when a school culture makes
students keep low profiles to avoid being labeled. Self-confidence and good
role models amongst classmates and teachers are decisive for students'
attitudes towards the subject. Thus, the philosophy of students towards
mathematics is one of the factors for learning mathematics.
Since attitudes and self-efficacy in mathematics affect the performance in
mathematics, low performance in Mathematics is also a problem in the
Philippines. For instance, in the result of the Third International Mathematics
and Science Study ranked the Philippines (TIMSS) as 39th out of 41
participating international countries (Mullis et al. Hinor, 2007) as cited by
Villaver (2014). This showed that Filipino students could not go beyond
simple recall. They could not fully comprehend the questions, thus leading to
a wrong answer. Mathematics performance, as measured by the National
Achievement Test (NAT) result is below the 50% required by DepEd. In 2009,
even with only the science high schools participating in the Advanced
Mathematics category, the Philippines ranked lowest (Department of
Education, 2010).
Moreover, the Division of Aurora experiences problems in Mathematics
performance, as seen in the NAT result released by the National Education
Testing and Research Centre (2012). The division's Mean Percentage Score
(MPS) is 52.0, ranked 58 out of 191 divisions in the country.
Besides, the researcher worked in Mariano D. Marquez Memorial National
High School for three years as a secondary school teacher and assessed the
mathematics performance and potential of students and found out. Students
experienced difficulty in Mathematics. Most of them do not perform the task
given by the teacher. In quizzes, students got very low scores. When
performing their seat works, some of the students have only a few are
passed the examination, and most of them would take the remedial
investigation to pass the subject. Moreover, the researcher observed that
attitude and self-efficacy are the factors of teaching mathematics to
secondary students. Several studies revealed that positive attitudes are
conducive to good achievement in mathematics. Furthermore, regarding
school mathematics, self-efficacy is found to be one of the most critical
variables for explaining the difference in mathematics performance of
students that explains a quarter of the variance while predicting students’
mathematics achievement (Recbar et al., 2018).
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/
383707300_Attitudes_toward_Learning_Mathematics_and_Performance_of_Grade_11_Stude
nts_in_the_New_Normal
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/345305797_Attitudes_and_Self-
_Efficacy_of_Students_toward_Mathematics
https://www.academia.edu/73655675/
Attitude_Towards_Learning_Mathematics_Emotional_Disposition_and_Behavior_of_STEM_Stu
dents_in_Senior_High_School
