A comparison of mathematics anxiety profiles between Mexican and German students

Abstract

This article outlines the mathematics anxiety profiles of Mexican and German students by means of a questionnaire that has been drawn up ex professo. The mathematics anxiety can be defined around three description terms: beliefs, attitudes and emotions. The authors establish a Mathematics anxiety index and when they put it into practice they observe that the German students tend to obtain a higher value, which means that they have a higher level of mathematics anxiety. The differences in the values of the Mathematics anxiety index can be understood in terms of cultural differences. This interpretation can be consistent with the cultural differences and matches the obtained results.