Mathematics education, together with science and language, always has an important place in the curricula of most countries’ education systems. Therefore, not only national exams, but also international exams such as Program of International Student Assessment (PISA) and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) are designed to evaluate students’ performances mainly in Mathematics, Science and Language. Turkish students’ Mathematics performances in these exams seem to be unsatisfactory. For example, Turkey ranked 44^th among 65 OECD countries in terms of math scores in PISA in 2012 (OECD, 2014), and according to TIMSS 2011 scores 4^th grader Turkish students ranked 35^th  and 8^th grader students ranked 24^th in  math tests (Mullis, Martin, Foy, & Arora, 2012). Such international exams should serve as an opportunity for every country to evaluate their curricula and urge the scholars to investigate the reasons for poor performance.

There are several cognitive and affective factors influencing the learners’ math achievement. Among these factors are students’ preparedness, motivation, intelligence, interests and needs, instructional excellence, learners’ attitudes and anxiety towards math (Akgül, 2008; Dursun & Bindak, 2011). Based on the principle that every learner can learn, it should be ensured that favorable conditions should be set according to the needs of the students. For teaching mathematics, as for all other subjects, the objectives should not be restricted to cognitive-based knowledge and competences, but also they should consider learners’ affective preparedness and affective objectives to be gained. Anxiety towards math is an important aspect of this preparedness. Besides, anxiety (or confidence as an opposite construct) can be an output of a learning experience. It is well established that there is a relationship between anxiety and math performance (Akgül, 2008; Bekdemir, 2009; Bozkurt, 2012; Dursun & Bindak, 2011; İlhan & Öner Sünkür, 2012; Kılıç, 2011; Ma, 1999; Sezgin, 2007; Şentürk, 2010). Though, math anxiety is detrimental for math performance especially after a high level, some reasonable amount of anxiety can even be beneficial for better performance (Dursun & Bindak, 2011; Ma, 1999).  Despite this dichotomy, research generally yielded negative correlation coefficients between math anxiety and performance across different age groups (Ma, 1999). For example, in a meta-analysis which involved a rather broad spectrum of international studies and thus population, Ma (1999) found a significant negative correlation (-.27) math anxiety and performance.

The present study has stemmed from the need to learn about the direction and magnitude of the association between math anxiety and performance by combining the findings of the recent studies conducted in Turkey through a meta-analysis. Although there are several studies which investigated this relationship individually in Turkish context, we have not found, in our attempt of literature review, any study combining them using meta-analytic method. Thus, this study aims to investigate the direction and common effect size of the relationship between mathematics anxiety and mathematics achievement for Turkish studies. It was also aimed to test whether there is a significant difference between the common effect sizes of the relationships across different grade levels. 

Included studies are shown with an asteriks (*) *Akgül, S. (2008). İlköğretim İkinci Kademe 7. ve 8. Sınıf Öğrencilerinin Matematik Kaygıları ile Algıladıkları Öğretmen Sosyal Desteğinin Cinsiyete Göre Matematik Başarılarını Yordama Gücü. Unpublished master thesis, Yıldız Teknik University, İstanbul. *Bekdemir, M. (2009). Meslek Yüksekokulu Öğrencilerinin Matematik Kaygı Düzeylerinin ve Başarılarının Değerlendirilmesi. EÜFBED, 2(2), 169-189. *Bozkurt, S. (2012). İlköğretim İkinci Kademe Öğrencilerinde Sınav Kaygısı, Matematik Kaygısı, Genel Başarı ve Matematik Başarısı Arasındaki İlişkilerin İncelenmesi. Unpublished master thesis, İstanbul University, İstanbul. Cohen, L., Manion, L. & Morrison, K. (2007). Research Method in Education (6thedition). NY:Taylor&Francis e-Library Cooper, H., Hedges, L.V. & Valentine, J.C. (2009). The handbook of research synthesis and meta-analysis (2nd edition). NY:Sage Publication. *Dursun, Ş. & Bindak, R. (2011). İlköğretim İkinci Kademe Öğrencilerinin Matematik Kaygılarının İncelenmesi. CÜ, Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 35(1), 18-21 *İlhan, M. & Öner Sünkür, M. (2012). Matematik Kaygısı ile Olumlu ve Olumsuz Mükemmelliyetçiliğin Matematik Başarısını Yordama Gücü. Mersin Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi, 8(1),178-188. *Kılıç, A.S. (2011). İlköğretim İkinci Kademe Öğrencilerinin Genel Başarıları, Matematik Başarıları, Matematik Dersine Yönelik Tutumları, Güdülenmeleri ve Matematik Kaygıları Arasındaki İlişki. Unpublished master thesis, Gazi University, Ankara. Ma, X. (1999). A Meta-Analysis of the Relationship between Anxiety toward Mathematics and Achievement in Mathematics. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 30(5),520-540 Mullis, I.V.S, Martin, M.O., Foy, P., & Arora, A. (2012). TIMSS 2011 International Results in Mathematics. International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement. Herengracht 487, Amsterdam, 1017 BT, The Netherlands. *Nazlıçiçek, N. (2007). Onuncu sınıf öğrencilerinin matematik basarılarını açıklayıcı bir model çalışması. Unpublished doctoral thesis, Yıldız Teknik University, İstanbul. OECD (2014) PISA 2012 Results in Focus: What 15-year-olds know and what they can do with what they know: Key results from PISA 2012, retrived from http://www.oecd.org/pisa/keyfindings/pisa-2012-results-overview.pdf *Reçber, Ş. (2011). An investigation of the relationship among the seventh grade students' mathematics self efficacy, mathematics anxiety, attitudes towards mathematics and mathematics achievement regarding gender and school type. Unpublished master thesis, METU, Ankara. *Sezgin, M. (2007). Öğrencilerin Matematik Başarılarına Etki Eden Faktörler. Unpublished master thesis, Beykent University, İstanbul. *Şentürk, B. (2010). İlköğretim Beşinci Sınıf Öğrencilerinin Genel Başarıları, Matematik Başarıları, Matematik Dersine Yönelik Tutumları Ve Matematik Kaygıları Arasındaki İlişki. Unpublished master thesis, Afyon Kocatepe University, Afyon. *Yıldırım, S. (2011). Öz-yeterlik, İçe Yönelik Motivasyon, Kaygı ve Matematik Başarısı: Türkiye, Japonya ve Finlandiya’dan Bulgular. EFMED, 5(1), 277-291.