The association between students mathematic knowledge and factors related to students, parents, and school: A cross-cultural comparison study

Abstract

Few studies have examined how factors predict students’ mathematic knowledge/literacy. By using the data from the United States and China from PISA 2012, 11 factors were constructed and used to identify relationships between mathematic knowledge/literacy and factors related to student, parent, and school using a complex samples general linear model. Results revealed that math self-efficacy was the only common factor that positively affected students’ mathematic knowledge/literacy across the two countries. For U.S. students, mathematic knowledge/literacy was also positively affected by math self-concept and negatively affected by perceived peer math norms, math anxiety, and math professional development. However, for Chinese students, mathematic knowledge/literacy was positively affected by student-teacher relationships and student-math teacher ratio and negatively affected by sense of belonging.