UNESCO: Albanian students have less anxiety about mathematics today than 10 years ago
2025-01-17 09:46:32
TiranaPost
UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) has noted that the level of anxiety of Albanian students about the subject of mathematics has decreased significantly between 2012 and 2022. According to UNESCO, the anxiety index of Albanian students about mathematics from 2012 to 2022 decreased by about 0.13 points. Also, according to the PISA test conducted in 2022, Albanian students received 368 points in mathematics, 69 points less than in the 2018 test and 21 points less than in 2012.
Since 2003, the global test of knowledge of 15-year-olds “PISA” has attempted to assess math anxiety. Math anxiety was measured by asking students to answer six questions “strongly disagree”, “disagree”, “agree” or “strongly agree”.
The students' statements were “I often worry that math will be difficult for me”; “I worry that I will get poor grades in math”, “I get very tense when I have to do math homework”, “I get very nervous doing math problems”, “I feel helpless when doing a math exercise” and “I feel anxious about failing math”.
Responses are aggregated to form the PISA math anxiety index, providing a standardized measure to compare anxiety at different levels and over time. UNESCO recently reported that the math anxiety index increased significantly in 37 countries and economies between 2012 and 2022, most notably in Austria, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Sweden, Turkey, the United States, and Vietnam.
In Poland and Sweden, for example, 15-year-old students in 2022 were at least 10 percentage points more anxious about math than their peers in 2012. In contrast, math anxiety has fallen significantly in Albania, France, Hungary, Jordan, the Republic of Korea, Qatar, Romania, and the United Arab Emirates.
UNESCO considers math anxiety to be a barrier to academic achievement. Math anxiety not only prevents students from pursuing further studies in math, but also hinders them from pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Anxiety has a negative impact on mental health and overall well-being across all age groups.
Over the past few decades, there has been increasing interest in understanding when and how math anxiety develops. Research suggests that the first signs appear as early as age 6, with important implications for later development, as anxiety tends to remain stable or increase over time.
But comparing the data, countries that have seen a decline in student math anxiety also have poor PISA knowledge scores in this subject. This relationship holds true for Albania, Jordan, Qatar, Romania, and the United Arab Emirates.
*This Monitor.al article was reposted by Tiranapost.al
