The Mediating Effect of Teacher Communication Skills on Achievement and Students’ Attitudes Toward Mathematics

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate whether teacher communication skills could mediate the relationship between senior high school students’ attitudes toward mathematics and their mathematics achievement. Employing a causal-correlational research design, the study surveyed 338 Grade 11 and 12 students from participating schools, with the sample size determined using the Cochran’s formula to ensure an appropriate representation of the total population. Participants responded to validated Likert-scale instruments measuring students’ attitude towards mathematics and perceived teacher communication skills, while mathematics performance was obtained through academic grades. Pearson’s correlation and mediation analyses were utilized to examine the relationships and indirect effects among variables. Results indicated that students demonstrate generally high attitudes toward mathematics in motivation and self-efficacy with moderate level of anxiety. Teacher communications skills was high, especially in clarity, encouragement and understanding behaviors. Significant relationships were found among students’ attitudes, teacher communication skills and mathematics performance. Although direct influence from students’ attitude toward mathematics-to-mathematics performance was not significant (β = 0.017, p = 0.597), teacher communication skills showed a significant mediating effect (β = 0.129, p = 0.025), resulting in a meaningful total effect (β = 0.077, p = 0.041). These findings emphasize that effective teacher communication plays a pivotal role in translating students’ positive attitudes into improved mathematics achievement. This foster strengthening teachers’ communication competencies through professional development fostering effective classroom instructions to enhance students’ mathematical achievement and engagement.