Investigations in the field of psychology have traditionally paid attention to studying mental health problems and their prevention (

Abstract

This study intended to examine the difference in students' performances in terms of measurement and geometry between urban and rural schools. This research used a quasi-experimental design. This study involved a total of 63 students from urban school and 51 students from the rural school. This study conducted a pre-test, post-test, and post-delayed test to measure the students' performance. The treatment group utilized the Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) based Module framed Cognitive Apprenticeship Model (CAM). The analysis of covariance showed that there is a significant difference between the post-test and post-delayed tests for the urban school. This finding revealed that the HOTS approach in teaching mathematics was more effective than the conventional teaching approach for students in an urban school. However, the result of rural schools showed that there is no significant difference in both tests. This result revealed that teachers and students from rural schools need more time to familiarize and practice the use of the HOTS approach. Hence, continuously using this approach in teaching and learning in the future should be recommended.

<p>Based on many researches, there is negative relationship between mathematics anxiety and achievement. However, there is no study about mathematics anxiety and achievement in Malaysian foundation centers. This research studied the impact of Lesson Study (LS) on mathematics anxiety and achievement of students in a Malaysian university. A total of eight lecturers were involved in planning the LS which was experimented on 44 students as experimental group, while 42 others were in the control group. In the experimental group, students solved problems individually and in teams in a student-centered approach. For the control group, students were taught using the conventional method. Mathematics anxiety was measured using the Mathematics Anxiety Scale-Revised (MAS-R). A mathematics test was used to measure the students’ ability in problem solving. The data was analyzed using t-test, ANOVA and MANOVA. The results showed that there is a significant difference between the means of the experimental and control groups in mathematics anxiety and achievement scores. However, there is no statistically significant interaction between the effects of educational method and gender on both mathematics anxiety and achievement. LS was found to be a suitable method to increasing the student’s ability in problem solving and reducing their anxiety.</p>

The purpose of this study was to explore secondary school students' mathematics engagement focusing on the cognitive, affective and behavioural engagement domains. A total of 387 students (186 male and 201 female) from the urban and rural secondary schools in Pahang, Malaysia, were randomly selected. There were 158 students from the urban schools and 229 students from the rural schools. Descriptive analyses for mathematics engagement domains revealed behavioural engagement had the highest mean (M = 3.74, SD = .63), followed by cognitive engagement (M = 3.56, SD = .43) and affective engagement (M = 3.48, SD = .47). The mean for students' overall mathematics engagement was 3.56 (SD = .46). Further analyses showed there were significant differences in each of the engagement domains in mathematics learning (affective, cognitive and behavioural), where students in the urban schools showed significantly better in the mean scores for affective, cognitive, behavioural domains and the overall mathematics engagement as compared to the students in the rural schools. Similar findings also showed there were significant differences in the overall mathematics engagement mean between the genders. The findings indicated girls were significantly better than boys in all (affective, cognitive and behavioural) of the engagement domains in mathematics learning. It was also shown girls had higher overall mathematics engagement mean as compared to boys. However, the study also indicated the overall students' mathematics engagement was at a moderate level. Besides, the rural school students did not show high mathematics engagement as compared to the urban school students. Further analyses showed girls significantly had better mathematics engagement as compared to boys. Hence, it is recommended that in order to optimize students' mathematics engagement, they should be actively engaged in more participative learning activities in mathematics classrooms. Focus should be given to rural schools and also among the boys.