Math Anxiety and Gender Differences in Additional Mathematics among Islamic Residential School Students

Abstract

Mathematics anxiety is a major psychological barrier to student achievement, especially when students are faced with advanced and high-stakes subjects such as Additional Mathematics. There has been a lot of research on this issue in regular public schools, but little is known about how these emotional pressures play out in specialized educational settings. The objectives of this study were to determine the level of math anxiety and gender differences among students in an Islamic residential school in Terengganu, Malaysia. The sample was based on localized case study design where data was collected from 70 Form 5 students. A subset of 70 fully completed responses was then subjected to descriptive and inferential analyses. The descriptive results reveal an alarming reality, which is that 65.7% of the students suffer from high levels of math anxiety. An item-level analysis revealed a surprising paradox; students reported feeling very comfortable, focused and cooperative during everyday classroom learning but experienced high levels of emotional distress over high-stakes testing, the fear of public inaccuracy and unexpected classroom evaluation. Moreover, the independent samples t-test revealed a statistically significant gender difference, showing that female students suffer from a significantly heavier emotional burden and higher anxiety levels compared to their male counterparts. The high math anxiety in elite, dual-curriculum boarding settings is a psychological roadblock, not a reflection of a student’s lack of effort. Educators need to actively shift classroom cultures away from high-stakes tactics like unexpected “cold-calling” and instead focus on normalizing mistakes as a natural part of learning to protect student well-being and ensure equitable participation in STEM pathways.