Abstract
This study presents empirical findings demonstrating predictive validities of non-cognitive variables for mathematics achievement among primary and secondary school students from cross-country perspectives. Results based on TIMSS 2015 assessment showed that confidence was a moderately strong predictor of mathematics achievement in all TIMSS participant countries (100%). Interest, on the other hand, was a moderately strong predictor in most countries for eighth-graders (77%) but only in about a dozen countries for fourth-graders (20%), showing a stronger interest-achievement link for the secondary school students, from the cross-national perspective. The sense of belonging measure demonstrated a lack of its relevance to primary school students’ achievement. Further, bullying showed predictive relevance for student achievement only in three countries (South Africa, Jordan, and Egypt). The study concludes that while confidence was a universally relevant predictor of student achievement across all countries/regions, predictive utilities of interest, sense of belonging, and bullying appeared to be heavily dependent on a grade-level and country/regional context.
Highlights
International large-scale assessments routinely collect data about students’ non-cognitive characteristics to provide information about factors associated with academic achievement
Universal predictability of confidence is remarkable with 100% of countries in both grades showing at least a medium effect size for mathematics achievement
Interest was a better predictor for secondary school students than it was for primary school students
Summary
International large-scale assessments routinely collect data about students’ non-cognitive characteristics to provide information about factors associated with academic achievement. The present study aimed to examine predictive validities of four non-cognitive variables that were measured in the most recent Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) assessment conducted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement’s (IEA). It examined whether the non-cognitive constructs that have been regularly collected in the large-scale assessment such as TIMSS had universal relevance as predictors of student achievement in mathematics. Lee and Stankov (2018) examined 65 non-cognitive variables and concluded that, self-efficacy, confidence, and educational aspiration had the best predictive validities for student achievement across TIMSS and PISA (Programmed for International Students Assessment) databases. A meta-analysis of Richardson et al (2012), after analyzing 50 conceptually distinct non-cognitive variables, established that performance self-efficacy, academic self-efficacy, effort regulation, and grade-goal setting had the strongest predictabilities of academic performance measured in grade point average (GPA) among university students. Hattie’s (2009) review highlighted motivation/engagement, self-concept, anxiety, and attitudes towards mathematics as showing the strongest predictive validity of student achievement
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