Math anxiety, gender and fields of knowledge in university students

Abstract

Affective responses play an essential role in the process of teaching-learning Mathematics. The «math anxiety» has focused a large number of investigations. In this paper, using the Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Anxiety Subscale, we have analyzed the math anxiety levels of beginner university students. We have done this study in a global way and classifying the subjects by gender and by the fields of knowledge of their degrees. Overall, subjects have an anxiety below the neutral value, which is good. Women have a significantly greater anxiety among men. There are also significant differences between fields of knowledge. Students from technical degrees are the ones who show less anxiety. Students of health degrees recorded the highest values.