Malaysian science stream students anxiety towards chemistry at the secondary school level

Abstract

This study investigated the extent of anxiety towards chemistry that exists among science stream students at the secondary school level in urban and rural schools. The research design of this study was a mixed method research design. Upper secondary school students (n = 258) participated in the study which was conducted in the district of Johor Bahru, Malaysia. The questionnaire was developed to explore the attribution factor of chemistry anxiety that included learning chemistry anxiety, chemistry evaluation anxiety and handling chemicals anxiety. In order to provide richer interpretation of chemistry anxiety, the Rasch model analysis was performed to support the inferential analysis and thematic analysis conducted in this study. The results showed a significant difference in the chemistry anxiety that existed among science stream students in urban and rural schools. Indeed, appropriate further actions by educators should be implemented in order to reduce the existence of chemistry anxiety among students.