Primary School Students' Self-Concept in Mathematics and Science: Findings from TIMSS 2019

Abstract

A self-concept is an important construct that has been associated not only with academic achievement but with success in life in general. The self-concept can be general and domain specific. It is believed that by the end of Grade 4 students’ understanding about their abilities is close to reality. Besides, by increasing the individuals’ domain specific self-concept, also the achievement increases and vice versa. In this research, the authors explored the influencing factors of 4th graders’ self-concept in Mathematics and Science from the IEA’s TIMSS 2019 study. The factors were selected from the students’ and parents’ questionnaires. As the self-concept is typically associated with achievement, the students’ achievement in Mathematics and Science was used as a reference. The purpose for this study was to examine whether achievement has the main influence on students’ self-concept in Mathematics and Science and to find out other influencing factors. The research question was as follows: what factors influence the 4th grade students’ self-concept in Mathematics and the students’ self-concept in Science in the IEA’s TIMSS 2019 study? The authors used a correlation and linear regression analysis to process the data from 8 countries around the Baltic Sea: Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and the Russian Federation. The findings revealed that students’ liking for the school subject was a more significant factor for students’ self-concept in Mathematics and Science than their achievement. The achievement was only the second most influencing factor. It was discovered that students with higher self-concept understood their teachers better and were bullied less than their peers with lower self-concept in the domain subject.