Cross-National Gender Differences in Mathematics Achievement, Attitude, and Self-Efficacy within a Common Intrinsic Structure

Abstract

Because of a marked increase in the Canadian immigrant and refugee population in recent years, school psychologists today are frequently called upon to make recommendations concerning the learning needs of students from many diverse backgrounds and cultures. The purpose of this study was to examine possible gender as well as cultural differences in mathematics attitude, achievement, and self-efficacy between Canadian high school students and English-speaking high school students from a northern city in India. Although the participants, tested in their home countries, were administered the same battery of measures, the findings revealed, among other things, significant multivariate and corresponding univariate country, gender, and country x gender interaction effects. The importance of these findings for the practice of school psychology is discussed.