A meta-analysis of the combined effect of self-efficacy and students' mathematics interest on mathematics achievement

Mathematics interest, anxiety, self-efficacy and achievement: Examining reciprocal relations

Event Abstract Back to Event Cognitive Activation in Mathematics Lessons: Links to Mathematics Interest, Self-Efficacy, and Achievement Shaljan Areepattamannil1*, Myint Swe Khine1 and Michael Melkonian1 1 Emirates College for Advanced Education, United Arab Emirates There are growing concerns among educational policymakers and practitioners over the dwindling numbers of students choosing to study STEM subjects such as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. As a result, education systems across the world have been ‘frantically’ exploring ways to foster students’ interest in STEM subjects, and to encourage them to pursue a career in STEM-related fields. Of the STEM subjects, mathematics cuts across the other three subjects, and a high-level of content mastery in mathematics is considered indispensable to success in STEM-related careers. The present study, therefore, drawing on data from the fifth cycle of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), examined the relations of cognitive activation in mathematics lessons to mathematics interest, self-efficacy, and achievement among a nationally representative sample of over 5000 adolescents hailing from Shanghai-China. The results of the study revealed that mathematics teachers’ use of cognitive activation strategies in their lessons—asking students to apply what they have learned to new contexts, encouraging students to reflect on problems, helping students to learn from mistakes they have made, presenting problems with no immediately obvious method of solution, giving problems with multiple solutions, and asking students to use their own procedures for solving complex problems—was significantly associated with higher mathematics interest, self-efficacy, and achievement. The findings of the study shed light on the key roles that mathematics teachers’ use of cognitive activation strategies play in enhancing students’ mathematics interest, self-efficacy, and achievement. The results of the study also highlight the need to create a mathematics teaching force which is capable of effectively and efficiently employing varied cognitive activation strategies in their lessons. However, further research is warranted to investigate the validity and efficacy of these strategies in other cultures. Keywords: Cognitive activation, mathematics achievement, Mathematics interest, Mathematics self-efficacy, Mathematics lessons Conference: International Conference - Educational Neuroscience, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 28 Feb - 29 Feb, 2016. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Educational Neuroscience Citation: Areepattamannil S, Swe Khine M and Melkonian M (2016). Cognitive Activation in Mathematics Lessons: Links to Mathematics Interest, Self-Efficacy, and Achievement. Front. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: International Conference - Educational Neuroscience. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2016.92.00022 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 11 Feb 2016; Published Online: 23 Mar 2016. * Correspondence: Dr. Shaljan Areepattamannil, Emirates College for Advanced Education, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, sareepattamannil@ecae.ac.ae Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Shaljan Areepattamannil Myint Swe Khine Michael Melkonian Google Shaljan Areepattamannil Myint Swe Khine Michael Melkonian Google Scholar Shaljan Areepattamannil Myint Swe Khine Michael Melkonian PubMed Shaljan Areepattamannil Myint Swe Khine Michael Melkonian Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.

Using data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), this study implements two statistical analyses to investigate the effects of student and teacher characteristics on students’ mathematical achievement. First, the authors conduct an exploratory factor analysis to explore the factor structure for the various student and teacher variables of interest in this study. Second, they perform hierarchical linear modeling to analyze students’ and teachers’ multilevel structure in a school. The results suggest that student characteristics such as mathematics interest, instrument motivation, mathematics self-efficacy, mathematics anxiety, mathematics self-concept, and out-of-school study time predicted 39.9% of mathematical achievement variance. The results also suggest that mathematics self-efficacy had the largest effect on mathematical achievement. Teacher characteristics such as teacher-directed instruction, cognitive activation, teacher support, classroom management, and student–teacher relations predicted 34.9% of mathematical achievement variance. This study’s results have implications for educators in fostering a positive learning environment to increase students’ mathematics interest and self-efficacy, and focus on specific teacher characteristics to increase students’ mathematical achievement.

本研究採用TIMSS 2007 的資料，探討台灣、日本、香港與新加坡等四個亞洲地區國家（地區）的小學四年級學童在不同性別、使用國語頻率、家中藏書量、家庭文化資本、數學自信、數學興趣與數學成就方面之差異情形，並利用t 考驗、單因子及雙因子變異數分析、皮爾森積差相關分析等統計方法分析來探討不同地區學童性別、使用國語頻率、家中藏書量、家庭文化資本、數學自信、數學興趣對數學成就表現有何影響。 本研究研究結果發現： （一）整體而言，四個國家（地區）的比較，台灣、日本與香港的小學四年級男學童 在數學自信、數學興趣與數學成就皆優於女學童；唯新加坡小學四年級男學童 在數學自信方面表現優於女學童，但在數學成就方面則是女學童表現優於男學 童，而在數學興趣方面則無明顯差異情形。 （二）四個國家（地區）小學四年級學童使用國語頻率越高者的數學自信、數學興趣 與數學成就表現優於使用頻率低者。 （三）四個國家（地區）小學四年級學童在家中藏書量變項的比較，家中藏書量多者 其數學自信、數學興趣與數學成就越高；而在家庭文化資本方面，影響數學自 信的變項依其影響的程度分別為：學習參考書、學習光碟、電腦、連結網路與 字典；影響數學興趣的變項依其影響的程度分別為：學習參考書、學習光碟、 字典與電腦；而影響數學成就的因素，包含家庭文化資本所有變項影響都相當 顯著。 （四）四個國家（地區）小學四年級學童數學自信、數學興趣對數學成就達正相關 ，數學自信的相關性勝過數學興趣。 （五）四個國家（地區）小學四年級學童數學自信、數學興趣對數學成就有影響力， 但交互作用影響僅香港和新加坡達顯著水準。

Using the overlap sample of about 3500 students who participated in both the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 and the 2013 grade 12 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) mathematics assessment, this study investigates the relationships of mathematics identity, efficacy and interest to mathematics achievement in high school. Role identities, such as having a mathematics identity, as well as mathematics efficacy and interest are hypothesized to be important motivators of role-related behavior. Using a structural equation modeling approach, measures of these constructs at grades 9 and 11 are related to grade 12 NAEP mathematics achievement, simultaneously taking into account grade 9 mathematics achievement, high school mathematics coursetaking, educational expectations at grades 9 and 11 and student and school background factors. The results indicate that a mathematics identity and educational expectations at grade 11 are statistically and substantively significant predictors of grade 12 mathematics achievement in the presence of these other factors, whereas neither of the other two motivation factors—grade 11 mathematics self-efficacy and mathematics interest—were shown to have direct effects on grade 12 mathematics achievement. However, mathematics self-efficacy at grade 9 was shown to have an indirect effect on grade 12 mathematics achievement through grade 11 mathematics identity. The implications of these findings for identity theory are discussed.

<p>A mixed-methods quasi-experimental methodology was used to identify relationships between primary-school students' beliefs about intelligence, mathematics self-efficacy, and achievement, by investigating the effects of two interventions. One intervention aimed to strengthen students' mathematics self-efficacy, and the other aimed to develop in students' an incremental theory-of-intelligence – a belief that intelligence is malleable. In one group, teachers implemented both interventions with their students; in a second group, teachers implemented only the mathematics self-efficacy intervention, and the third (control) group were involved in no intervention. Year 4 and 5 students (n = 152) completed a questionnaire on three occasions, at intervals of about 7 months, to measure their theory-of-intelligence and their mathematics self-efficacy. Students made self-efficacy judgments in relation to specific number problems, which they were subsequently required to solve for the mathematics achievement measure. Both achievement and self-efficacy were then calibrated for each participant using the difficulty parameters for test items. Teachers completed questionnaires about their theory-of-intelligence and self-efficacy for teaching mathematics. Sub-samples of teachers and students were interviewed to develop a deeper understanding of what their questionnaire responses signified. The combined interventions had no significant effect on students' beliefs about the malleability of intelligence, mathematics self-efficacy, or achievement. In contrast, positive effects on students' mathematics self-efficacy and achievement were evident for students who experienced only the self-efficacy intervention. Teachers in this intervention group reported increased use of three strategies aimed at building students' mathematics self-efficacy: providing students with strategies for coping when learning became difficult; increasing their use of descriptive teacher-student feedback; and increasing their use of similar peers as models. For the self-efficacy intervention group, increases in students' mathematics achievement and self-efficacy appeared to be reciprocally related. The combined quantitative and qualitative evidence from the study showed that the complexity of some students' and teachers' beliefs about increasing intelligence was not reflected in their total scores on the theory-of-intelligence items used widely in earlier studies. In interviews, all students and most teachers described intelligence as malleable to varying degrees, which did not support previous dichotomous interpretations of theory-of-intelligence data. From students' definitions of intelligence, two related dimensions were established, one a fairly stable capacity for acquiring knowledge and skill in a given domain, and the second, the more malleable rate at which such knowledge and skill can be acquired. A variety of beliefs were expressed by students about which of these dimensions intelligence includes, and about how malleable the dimensions are. The findings raise questions about the value of advocating an incremental theory-of-intelligence for all students, regardless of their ability and how they conceptualise intelligence.</p>

<p>A mixed-methods quasi-experimental methodology was used to identify relationships between primary-school students' beliefs about intelligence, mathematics self-efficacy, and achievement, by investigating the effects of two interventions. One intervention aimed to strengthen students' mathematics self-efficacy, and the other aimed to develop in students' an incremental theory-of-intelligence – a belief that intelligence is malleable. In one group, teachers implemented both interventions with their students; in a second group, teachers implemented only the mathematics self-efficacy intervention, and the third (control) group were involved in no intervention. Year 4 and 5 students (n = 152) completed a questionnaire on three occasions, at intervals of about 7 months, to measure their theory-of-intelligence and their mathematics self-efficacy. Students made self-efficacy judgments in relation to specific number problems, which they were subsequently required to solve for the mathematics achievement measure. Both achievement and self-efficacy were then calibrated for each participant using the difficulty parameters for test items. Teachers completed questionnaires about their theory-of-intelligence and self-efficacy for teaching mathematics. Sub-samples of teachers and students were interviewed to develop a deeper understanding of what their questionnaire responses signified. The combined interventions had no significant effect on students' beliefs about the malleability of intelligence, mathematics self-efficacy, or achievement. In contrast, positive effects on students' mathematics self-efficacy and achievement were evident for students who experienced only the self-efficacy intervention. Teachers in this intervention group reported increased use of three strategies aimed at building students' mathematics self-efficacy: providing students with strategies for coping when learning became difficult; increasing their use of descriptive teacher-student feedback; and increasing their use of similar peers as models. For the self-efficacy intervention group, increases in students' mathematics achievement and self-efficacy appeared to be reciprocally related. The combined quantitative and qualitative evidence from the study showed that the complexity of some students' and teachers' beliefs about increasing intelligence was not reflected in their total scores on the theory-of-intelligence items used widely in earlier studies. In interviews, all students and most teachers described intelligence as malleable to varying degrees, which did not support previous dichotomous interpretations of theory-of-intelligence data. From students' definitions of intelligence, two related dimensions were established, one a fairly stable capacity for acquiring knowledge and skill in a given domain, and the second, the more malleable rate at which such knowledge and skill can be acquired. A variety of beliefs were expressed by students about which of these dimensions intelligence includes, and about how malleable the dimensions are. The findings raise questions about the value of advocating an incremental theory-of-intelligence for all students, regardless of their ability and how they conceptualise intelligence.</p>

This study examined teachers’ experience and motivation as predictors of students’ academic achievement and interest in mathematics in Delta North Senatorial District. Two research questions and two corresponding hypotheses that guided the study were answered and tested, respectively. The study employed the correlational research design. Three research instruments which are the Teachers’ Demographics and Motivational Level Questionnaire, Students’ Interest Questionnaire and Students’ Mathematics Achievement Score were used to collect the data analyzed for this study. The data obtained from the study were analyzed using, Canonical Correlation, Multiple Regression. The result obtained from the study revealed that Experience was found to be a significant predictor of students’ academic achievement in mathematics, but did not significantly predict student interest in mathematics. Motivation was also, a significant predictor of academic achievement, but not a predictor of student interest. The combination of the teacher variables highly predicted student academic achievement in mathematics and explained a very large variance in the dependent variable with Motivation being a higher unique contributor in the variance explained than teachers’ experience. The combination of the teachers’ variables did not significantly predict students’ Interest in mathematics. It was recommended that mathematics teachers that are experienced should be made to teach mathematics at the Senior Secondary level in schools and as much as possible, these teachers should be motivated (monetary and non-monetary) by their employers.

One of the pertinent reasons for poor academic achievement in Mathematics is fundamentally linked to the application of ineffective teaching methods by teachers to impact knowledge to learners. This study adopts a quasi-experimental pre-test post-test research design to examine the efficacy of kinesthetic learning on interest and achievement in Mathematics. Four research questions were raised to guide the study and four hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The sample comprises 101 Junior Secondary School students drawn from two secondary schools in Bekwarra Local Government Area of Cross River State, Nigeria. Two intact classes were randomly selected from each school and assigned to experimental and control group. Data for the study were sourced using a modified Mathematics Interest Inventory (MII) and mathematics achievement test designed by the researchers tagged Students’ Mathematics Achievement Test (SMAT). Data collected were analyzed using mean, standard deviation and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). The findings revealed a high post-test interest cluster mean of 3.10 (above the decision benchmark of 2.50) and also a higher post-test mean achievement score with (Mean = 20.82; Standard Deviation = 3.63) for students in the experimental group compared to the control group. The result also indicated that both male and female students taught mathematics using kinesthetic learning in the experimental group had positive interest and achievement after exposure to the treatment. The test of the hypotheses indicated that there is significant difference in interest and achievement between students taught mathematics using kinesthetic learning and conventional method, whereas there is no significant difference on the interest and achievement of male and female students taught mathematics using kinesthetic learning. The study concluded that kinesthetic learning has a positive effect on interest and achievement in mathematics; and that gender is not a sole determinant of good academic performance or interest in mathematics but teaching method. The study recommended that mathematics teachers should adopt kinesthetic learning or play way method in teaching because of its relevance in improving learners’ interest and achievement.

This study investigates the effect of problem-based STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) activities on 7th-grade students’ mathematics achievement, attitude, anxiety, self-efficacy, interest, and views. At the same time, the effects of these activities on students' anxiety, self-efficacy towards mathematics, and interest in STEM occupations were also examined. The study sample, which was selected using the convenience sampling method, consisted of 115 7th grade students of a public middle school in Turkey. In the quantitative phase of the research, a quasi-experimental research model with pre-test and post-test control group was used to determine the students’ mathematics achievement, attitudes, anxiety, self-efficacy towards mathematics and interests in STEM careers. In the qualitative phase semi-structured interview was used to understand students’ views on problem-based STEM activities and mathematics lessons in the qualitative part. Within the scope of the research, 6 different problem-based STEM activities related to ratio-proportion and percentages were applied to the experimental group students. The data collected from both groups before and after the implementation process were analyzed with descriptive statistics, independent samples t-test, and paired sample t-test. The results showed that problem-based STEM activities affect students’ mathematics achievement, self-efficacy, and interest in mathematics. It also helps students reducing their mathematics anxiety.

This study investigated the relationship between learning style and mathematics self-efficacy on senior secondary two (SS II) students’ interest and achievement in mathematics. Four research questions and four hypotheses guided the study. A Correlational survey research design was adopted for the study. Senior secondary two (SS 2) students from all the 78 public secondary schools in Abakaliki education zone of Ebonyi State formed the population of this study. The sample of the study comprised 400 students (200 males and 200 females) drawn from 8 randomly sample schools from the four local government areas in the zone. Learning Styles Inventory (LSI), Mathematics Self-Efficacy Scale (MSS), Mathematics Interest Inventory (MII) and Mathematics Achievement Test (EAT) with reliability coefficients of 0.86, 0.89, and 0.80 respectively were used as instruments for data collection of this study. Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was used to answer the research questions while linear regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses at 95% confidence level. The results revealed among others that: there is a positive relationship between the students learning style and self-efficacy on their interest and achievement in mathematics. The result further revealed that there was significant relationship between the students learning style and self-efficacy and their interest and achievement in mathematics. In line with the findings of the study, it was recommended among others that mathematics teachers should prioritize tailoring classroom instruction to accommodate the individual learning styles and self-efficacy of the learners since it has been proven to have a significant positive relationship to the students’ interest and achievement in mathematics.

Increasing interest and achievement in mathematics through children's literature

Gendered pathways to educational aspirations: The role of academic self-concept, school burnout, achievement and interest in mathematics and reading

Conventional teacher-led instruction remains dominant in most elementary mathematics classrooms in Taiwan. Under such instruction, the teacher can rarely take care of all students. Many students may then continue to fall behind the standard of mathematics achievement and lose their interest in mathematics; they eventually give up on learning mathematics. In fact, students in Taiwan generally have lower interest in learning mathematics compared to many other regions/countries. Thus, how to enhance students’ mathematics achievement and interest are two major problems, especially for those low-achieving students. This paper describes how we designed a game-based learning environment, called Math-Island, by incorporating the mechanisms of a construction management game into the knowledge map of the elementary mathematics curriculum. We also report an experiment conducted with 215 elementary students for 2 years, from grade 2 to grade 3. In this experiment, in addition to teacher-led instruction in the classroom, students were directed to learn with Math-Island by using their own tablets at school and at home. As a result of this experiment, we found that there is an increase in students’ mathematics achievement, especially in the calculation and word problems. Moreover, the achievements of low-achieving students in the experimental school outperformed the low-achieving students in the control school (a control group in another school) in word problems. Moreover, both the low-achieving students and the high-achieving students in the experimental school maintained a rather high level of interest in mathematics and in the system.

The purpose of this research is to describe: (1) the achievement and the interest in mathematics learning of the students taught using the CTL method and that of those taught using the Open-Ended method in the material on probability, (2) the effect of students’ mathematics learning styles on their achievement of mathematics on probability material, (3) the effect of students’ mathematics learning styles on their learning interest in mathematics on probability material, (4) the effect of teaching method and students’ mathematics learning styles on their achievement and interest in learning mathematics on the probability material. This research used a quasi-experimental research design by two experimental groups. The analysis of the data used normality and homogeneity testing, the multivariate analysis, and the post-hoc test involving the Bonferroni procedure.The results of the research are as follows: (1) In the probability material, the group of students taught by the CTL method has better achievement and mathematics learning interest than that of those who are taught using the Open-Ended learning method. (2) There is an learning style effect (auditory, visual, and kinesthetic) on their achievement of mathematics in the probability material.(3) There is an effect of learning style (auditory, visual, and kinesthetic) on their learning interest in mathematics probability material. (4) There is no effect of teaching method and students’ mathematics learning styles on their achievement and learning interest in mathematics in the probability material. Keywords: CTL, Open-Ended, learning styles, achievement, learning interest