Exploring the Effects of TI-84 Plus on Achievement and Anxiety in Mathematics
More details
Hide details
1
University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Publication date: 2006-12-23
EURASIA J. Math., Sci Tech. Ed 2006;2(3):66-78
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
Most of us want our students to feel that mathematics is an enjoyable and rewarding study for them …
but do we succeed? Some of our students are successful whereas others are anxious and fearful. The performance of
Malaysian students in mathematics has been generally been not good. It has been realized that poor mathematics
performance of students at the secondary level would result in a decrease in the number of students getting to the
university. It was with this realization that the present project was mooted. This study is designed to investigate the
effect of TI-84 Plus graphing calculator on the achievement of mathematics and the students’ anxiety. The sample of
the study consists of four classes of form four students from two of the public schools in Selangor, Malaysia. In each
school, one class was assigned to be the experimental group (N=54) and the other the control group (N=55). For the
experimental group, all students used the graphing calculator. The treatment took about ten weeks. Regular teachers
taught and used the graphing calculator. A paper and pencil test on the achievement and anxiety test developed by the
researcher was given to both groups before and after the treatment. The result showed that there was a significant
difference on the achievement and anxiety of the treatment groups (p < 0.01).