The relationship between mathematics anxiety and mathematical problem solving skills among primary school students

In this study students studying in 9 different primary schools that are joint to the Ministry of Education and Culture (MEC) in North Cyprus were taken into hand to study the relationship between “mathematics anxiety” and “mathematical problem solving skills”. The study group consists of 134 students studying in 9 different primary schools in the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus (TRNC) between 2009-2010 academic year. In this study, two different data collective measuring scales were administered. The fisrt measuring scale was used to measure the “mathematical problem solving skills” which was formed of two sections. The first section consisted of 9 questions for demographic information and the other section consisted of 28 statements in a form of a 4-point likert scale to measure the problem solving skills. In order to collect data for the student mathematics anxiety 45 statements in a form of a 4-point likert scale was only used. As a result of the study, there is a minor significant difference (r = 0.28; p = 0.01) between the relationship of students anxiety and problem solving skills.