Affective Determinants of Additional Mathematics Achievement in Malaysian Technical Secondary Schools

The purpose of this study was to identify the affective determinants of additional mathematics achievement in technical secondary schools. In addition, this study also aimed to identify the best predictor of affective variables toward additional mathematics achievement. The respondents of the study were 250 students from three public technical secondary schools in Kedah, Malaysia that were selected us ing random sampling. 40 multiple-choice items were selected to measure and determine their level of additional mathematics achievement. The affective variables were based on attitude, anxiety and habit. Multiple regression were used for tests of significan ce. The findings of the study showed that attitude has a positive relationship whereas anxiety in learning Additional Mathematics has a negative relationship with additional mathematics achievement. Additionally, the findings showed that attitude was the best predictor of additional mathematics achievement. This finding proposed the importance of assessing students’ affective attributes before assessing their cognitive ability in additional mathematics achievement. Therefore, this study suggests that teachers, counsellors and principals could assess students’ affective attributes in identifying students’ cognitive ability in learning additional mathematics.