Math-related Career Research Articles

The mediating effects of basic psychological needs on the associations between teacher support and Chinese adolescents’ science and math self-efficacy

ABSTRACT Background Science and math self-efficacy in high school can encourage students to choose science and math-related majors and thus cultivate relevant talent. The importance of science and math self-efficacy in academic performance and science and math-related career choices is well-documented. Despite numerous studies on various factors related to adolescents’ science and math self-efficacy, little empirical research has examined the effects of perceived teacher support on science and math self-efficacy among adolescents. Purpose Based on self-determination theory (SDT), this study aimed to examine the parallel mediation effect of relatedness, autonomy, and competence between perceived teacher support and Chinese adolescents’ science and math self-efficacy. Sample: We carried out a cross-sectional study that collected data from 443 Chinese tenth-grade adolescents (209 males, 47.20%). The students completed measures of perceived support from teachers, basic psychological needs, and science and math self-efficacy through an online survey. Methods The model was performed with AMOS 23 using a structural equation modeling approach with bootstrapping techniques (bootstrap replications:5,000). Results The results indicate that the association between teacher support and science and math self-efficacy was fully mediated by autonomy. The indirect effects of teacher support and science and math self-efficacy on relatedness or competence were insignificant. Conclusion These findings highlight the importance of teacher support in adolescents’ science and math self-efficacy and provide a foundation for a novel approach to stimulate and motivate adolescents’ science and math self-efficacy.

Identifying Mathematics Anxiety Through Automated Process (IMATAP): A Web-Based Screening Tool for Teachers

Mathematics anxiety (MA) is considered a potential barrier to success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers. A good number of students around the globe are terrified of mathematics. They do whatever they can to avoid math or math-related subjects. Therefore, the early identification of MA and its underlying factors is crucial in initiating timely interventions that can enhance positive attitudes in math, boost math performance, minimize math avoidance, and motivate students to pursue math-related careers. In this paper, we have presented a unique, multifaceted, and complete web-based MA screening tool called identifying mathematics anxiety through an automated process (IMATAP) to assess MA, its severity, and its deficiency. This assessment provides a detailed explanation of developing MA and helps teachers, parents, educators, and researchers design need-based intervention techniques (personalized or cluster-based) to reduce MA, which will ultimately help math-anxious students overcome math fear. Over the past two years (2021–2022), IMATAP has been successfully implemented in nine different primary and secondary level institutions in Bangladesh. Findings revealed that the effectiveness of the IMATAP system has been appreciated and highly accepted by both students and teachers.

Expectancies, task values, and perceived costs: Reciprocal effects on math-related career intention and achievement among middle school girls

There are ongoing efforts to understand female adolescents' motivation in math, as part of the science, technology, engineering, and math fields. The current study aimed to examine the temporal relations among expectancies, task values (intrinsic and utility value), and perceived costs (emotional and effort cost) in math to understand the underlying motivational processes for math-related career intention and achievement among middle school girls. To this end, we collected responses from 638 Korean middle school girls three separate times within a year. The autoregressive cross-lagged results revealed that there was no reciprocal relationship between expectancies and task values, but there appeared to be unidirectional positive prediction paths from utility value to self-efficacy. Regarding the costs, there were reciprocal relations between intrinsic value and emotional cost, which negatively affected each other. Consequently, utility value indirectly enhanced girls' math achievement by fostering self-efficacy, whereas emotional cost indirectly hindered their career intentions in math by dampening their intrinsic value. These findings suggest that it is important not only to increase task values, but also to manage costs to help adolescent girls adhere to their math-related career goals.

Profiles of motivational beliefs in math: Exploring their development, relations to student-perceived classroom characteristics, and impact on future career aspirations and choices.

Reports an error in Profiles of motivational beliefs in math: Exploring their development, relations to student-perceived classroom characteristics, and impact on future career aspirations and choices by Rebecca Lazarides, Anna-Lena Dicke, Charlott Rubach and Jacquelynne S. Eccles (Journal of Educational Psychology, 2020[Jan], Vol 112[1], 70-92). In the original article, the author note should have included that Jacquelynne S. Eccles is now also at the Institute for Positive Psychology and Education, Australian Catholic University, Sydney, Australia. The online version of this article has been corrected. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2019-30969-001). Four topics were investigated in this longitudinal person-centered study: (a) profiles of subjective task values and ability self-concepts of adolescents in the domain of mathematics, (b) the stability of and changes to the profiles of motivational beliefs from Grade 7 to 12, (c) the relation of changes to student-perceived classroom characteristics, and (d) the extent to which profile membership in early adolescence predicted mathematics achievement and career plans in late adolescence and the choice of math-related college majors and occupations in adulthood. Data were drawn from the Michigan Study of Adolescent and Adult Life Transitions Study. We focused on students who participated in the following 4 waves of data collection (N = 867): at the beginning of Grade 7 (Wave 3), at the end of Grade 7, in Grade 10 (Wave 5), and in Grade 12 (Wave 6). Four profiles that were stable across Grades 7 to 12 were identified using Latent Profile Analysis. Student-reported fairness and friendliness and competition in class predicted changes in profile membership. Profile membership in Grade 7 predicted math-related career plans in Grade 12. Profile membership in Grade 12 predicted the choice of math-related college major after finishing school and of math-related occupations in adulthood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)

Parental occupation and children’s school outcomes in math.

We investigate the relationship between math attitude and students’ math scores using data obtained from PISA 2012 and a 2SLS model. Math attitude is approximated by an indicator that takes into account intangible (parental attitude, student instrumental motivation and student math anxiety) and tangible (parental help in math homework) factors. The presence of one family member in a math-related career is our instrumental variable. We find that an increase of one standard deviation in math attitude increases the student score by approximately 30 points, a relevant effect since 40 points is the equivalent of one year of schooling.

Gendered Development of Motivational Belief Patterns in Mathematics Across a School Year and Career Plans in Math-Related Fields.

Rooted in Eccles and colleagues’ expectancy-value theory, this study aimed to examine how expectancies and different facets of task value combine to diverse profiles of motivational beliefs, how such complex profiles develop across a school year, and how they relate to gender and career plans. Despite abundant research on the association between gender and motivational beliefs, there is a paucity of knowledge regarding the gendered development of student motivational belief profiles in specific domains. Using latent-transition analysis in a sample of N = 751 ninth to tenth graders (55.9% girls), we investigated girls’ and boys’ development of motivational belief profiles (profile paths) in mathematics across a school year. We further analyzed the association between these profile paths and math-related career plans. The results revealed four motivational belief profiles: high motivation (intrinsic and attainment oriented), balanced above average motivation, average motivation (attainment and cost oriented), and low motivation (cost oriented). Girls were less likely than expected by chance to remain in the high motivation profile, while the opposite was true for boys. The math-relatedness of students’ career plans was significantly higher in the “stable high motivation” profile path than in all other stable profile paths.

Gendered Paths Into STEM-Related and Language-Related Careers: Girls' and Boys' Motivational Beliefs and Career Plans in Math and Language Arts.

Women are often underrepresented in math-intensive fields like the physical sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics. By comparison, boys relative to girls are less likely to strive for jobs in social and human-services domains. Relatively few studies have considered that intra-individual comparisons across domains may contribute to gendered occupational choices. This study examines whether girls’ and boys’ motivational beliefs in mathematics and language arts are predictive of their career plans in these fields. The study focusses on same domain and cross-domain effects and investigates bidirectional relations between motivational beliefs and career plans. Data for this study stem from 1,117 ninth and tenth graders (53.2% girls) from secondary schools in Berlin, Germany. Findings show systematic gender differences in same-domain effects in mathematics: girls’ comparatively lower mathematics self-concept and intrinsic value predicted a lower likelihood of striving for a math-related career. Cross-domain effects were not related to gender-specific career plans, with only one exception. Girls’ lower levels of intrinsic value in mathematics corresponded to a higher likelihood of striving for a career in language-related fields, which subsequently predicted lower levels of intrinsic value in mathematics. This finding points to a need to address both gender-specific motivational beliefs and gender-specific career plans in school when aiming to enhance more gender equality in girls’ and boys’ occupational choices.

Out-of-school time STEM program: Students’ attitudes toward and career interests in mathematics and science

<span>Internationally, out-of-school time (OST) science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs abound. However, rigorous evidence of their impacts on student outcomes is scarce. This study evaluated the relationships between OST STEM program participation and student motivational factors in math and science by analyzing survey and administrative data of 1.017 middle school students who participated in the seven-week, STEM-focused Prefreshman Engineering Program (PREP) in San Antonio, Texas, from 2015 to 2017. Multiple regression results indicated that the PREP participation was positively associated with students’ attitudes toward math and interests in math-related careers, whereas the effects on students’ attitudes toward science and career interests in science were negligible. No evidence was found to suggest that the associations between PREP participation and student motivational factors in math and science differed by gender, race/ethnicity, or socioeconomic status.</span>

Parental Occupation and Children's School Outcomes in Math

We find a positive relationship between math attitude and students' math scores using data obtained from PISA 2012 and a 2SLS model. Math attitude is approximated by three subjective measures: parental attitude and student instrumental motivation, which assess beliefs about math importance for the job market, and student math anxiety. The presence of one family member in a math-related career is our instrumental variable. Regardless of the proxy that is used for math attitude, an increase of one standard deviation increases the student score by at least 40 points, the equivalent of one year of schooling.

Math-related career aspirations and choices within Eccles et al.'s expectancy-value theory of achievement-related behaviors.

Which occupation to pursue is one of the more consequential decisions people make and represents a key developmental task. Yet the underlying developmental processes associated with either individual or group differences in occupational choices are still not well understood. This study contributes toward filling this gap, focusing in particular on the math domain. We examined two aspects of Eccles et al.'s (1983) expectancy-value theory of achievement-related behaviors: (a) the reciprocal associations between adolescents' expectancy and subjective task value beliefs and adolescents' career plans and (b) the multiplicative association between expectancies and values in predicting occupational outcomes in the math domain. Our analyses indicate that adolescents' expectancy and subjective task value beliefs about math and their math- or science-related career plans reported at the beginning and end of high school predict each other over time, with the exception of intrinsic interest in math. Furthermore, multiplicative associations between adolescents' expectancy and subjective task value beliefs about math predict math-related career attainment approximately 15 years after graduation from high school. Gender differences emerged regarding career-related beliefs and career attainment, with male students being more likely than female to both pursue and attain math-related careers. These gender differences could not be explained by differences in beliefs about math as an academic subject. (PsycINFO Database Record

A High School Summer Academy’s Effect on Increasing Awareness of the Horticulture Industry and Its Potential to Develop Future Horticulturists

This study examines the impact of a residential horticultural career academy, Camp Tomorrow’s Undergraduates Realizing the Future (TURF), conducted from 2010 to 2016 at Oklahoma State University (OSU) in Stillwater, OK. Each year, up to 25 Oklahoma high school students were engaged in 2 weeks of hands-on activities representing a variety of horticulture-related careers. Instructors for Camp TURF included OSU faculty, staff, and graduate students from the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, related OSU departments, and horticulture and landscape architecture industry professionals. The Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education sponsored this career academy, which was geared toward potential first-generation college students, and helped to expose students to the university atmosphere as well as expand their knowledge of science- and math-related career fields. Pre- and postassessments given at Camp TURF show significant changes in college readiness and familiarity with horticulture careers, but did not necessarily increase interest in particular horticulture and landscape architecture careers. Upon following up with academy graduates, we learned that the academy has been a positive experience for numerous attendees, with 76.6% going on to higher education and two students majoring in horticulture and landscape architecture-related areas.

Supplemental Material for Math-Related Career Aspirations and Choices Within Eccles et al.’s Expectancy–Value Theory of Achievement-Related Behaviors

Supplemental Material for Math-Related Career Aspirations and Choices Within Eccles et al.’s Expectancy–Value Theory of Achievement-Related Behaviors

교과서 실생활 문제 분석 - 미국 Precalculus 교과서를 중심으로 -

본 논문은 수학 교과서에 사용되는 실생활 관련 문제들에서 '사람의 존재 (Human presence)' 가 얼마만큼 실제적 또는 현실적으로 묘사되는지를 조사한 연구이다. 연구에 사용된 교과서는 미국 동부 지역 고등학교 Precalculus 수업에 많이 이용되는 Addison Wesley에서 출판된 Precalculus: Graphical, Numerical, Algebraic, Seventh Edition (2006) 이다. 본 논문에서는 실생활 관련 문제에서의 '사람의 존재 (Human presence)' 유무와 특성을 분석하기 위해 개발된 분석틀과 이 분석틀을 사용하여 분석한 결과들을 소개하고 시사점을 제언한다. In order to determine the message that is communicated to students about people who use math, this study analyzes contexts, human presence in particular, used in problems presented in a U. S. high school mathematics textbook. A framework was developed to analyze the human presence and was used to determine both the degree to which humans are present in the curriculum as well as characteristics of the present humans. One outcome of this study is the framework itself which can be used to analyze the human presence in any mathematics curriculum. Other outcomes include the determination that the particular mathematics textbook under study contains an overwhelming lack of humans, a surprising lack of named humans, and a disappointing presence of humans in math-related careers. These findings raise concerning questions about the message that is communicated to students about the usefulness of school mathematics and missing a valuable opportunity to inspire students to pursue degrees in mathematics. Additionally, it is hoped that these findings would inform the work of the Korean mathematics education communities on the textbook development.

Remediation of Childhood Math Anxiety and Associated Neural Circuits through Cognitive Tutoring.

Math anxiety is a negative emotional reaction that is characterized by feelings of stress and anxiety in situations involving mathematical problem solving. High math-anxious individuals tend to avoid situations involving mathematics and are less likely to pursue science, technology, engineering, and math-related careers than those with low math anxiety. Math anxiety during childhood, in particular, has adverse long-term consequences for academic and professional success. Identifying cognitive interventions and brain mechanisms by which math anxiety can be ameliorated in children is therefore critical. Here we investigate whether an intensive 8 week one-to-one cognitive tutoring program designed to improve mathematical skills reduces childhood math anxiety, and we identify the neurobiological mechanisms by which math anxiety can be reduced in affected children. Forty-six children in grade 3, a critical early-onset period for math anxiety, participated in the cognitive tutoring program. High math-anxious children showed a significant reduction in math anxiety after tutoring. Remarkably, tutoring remediated aberrant functional responses and connectivity in emotion-related circuits anchored in the basolateral amygdala. Crucially, children with greater tutoring-induced decreases in amygdala reactivity had larger reductions in math anxiety. Our study demonstrates that sustained exposure to mathematical stimuli can reduce math anxiety and highlights the key role of the amygdala in this process. Our findings are consistent with models of exposure-based therapy for anxiety disorders and have the potential to inform the early treatment of a disability that, if left untreated in childhood, can lead to significant lifelong educational and socioeconomic consequences in affected individuals. Significance statement: Math anxiety during early childhood has adverse long-term consequences for academic and professional success. It is therefore important to identify ways to alleviate math anxiety in young children. Surprisingly, there have been no studies of cognitive interventions and the underlying neurobiological mechanisms by which math anxiety can be ameliorated in young children. Here, we demonstrate that intensive 8 week one-to-one cognitive tutoring not only reduces math anxiety but also remarkably remediates aberrant functional responses and connectivity in emotion-related circuits anchored in the amygdala. Our findings are likely to propel new ways of thinking about early treatment of a disability that has significant implications for improving each individual's academic and professional chances of success in today's technological society that increasingly demands strong quantitative skills.

Gender reality regarding mathematic outcomes of students aged 9 to 15 years in Taiwan

This study uses a comprehensive modeling framework to explore gender similarities and differences in mathematic outcomes of students aged 9 to 15years. Based on data from 3157 students, we established latent structural equation modeling (SEM) models incorporating 22 latent factors across 3 age levels. Gender had small to moderate effects on math achievement and math-related career intentions. All gender effects were indirectly mediated by intervening factors. Math achievement and career intentions were moderately related, but were influenced by diverse factors. Gender exhibited distinct and salient personality characteristics that were stable with development. Although girls allocated more effort to study and were perceived as receiving more support, boys excelled in many mathematical learning-related domains. Gender differences in mathematics grew stronger as students aged. Finally, gender began to directly affect math self-efficacy between ages 9 and 12years. These ages could be a critical period for salient increases in gender difference in math.

Math Anxiety, Working Memory, and Math Achievement in Early Elementary School

Although math anxiety is associated with poor mathematical knowledge and low course grades (Ashcraft & Krause, 2007), research establishing a connection between math anxiety and math achievement has generally been conducted with young adults, ignoring the emergence of math anxiety in young children. In the current study, we explored whether math anxiety relates to young children's math achievement. One hundred and fifty-four first- and second-grade children (69 boys, 85 girls) were given a measure of math achievement and working memory (WM). Several days later, children's math anxiety was assessed using a newly developed scale. Paralleling work with adults (Beilock, 2008), we found a negative relation between math anxiety and math achievement for children who were higher but not lower in WM. High-WM individuals tend to rely on WM-intensive solution strategies, and these strategies are likely disrupted when WM capacity is co-opted by math anxiety. We argue that early identification and treatment of math anxieties is important because these early anxieties may snowball and eventually lead students with the highest potential (i.e., those with higher WM) to avoid math courses and math-related career choices.

When Math Hurts: Math Anxiety Predicts Pain Network Activation in Anticipation of Doing Math

Math can be difficult, and for those with high levels of mathematics-anxiety (HMAs), math is associated with tension, apprehension, and fear. But what underlies the feelings of dread effected by math anxiety? Are HMAs’ feelings about math merely psychological epiphenomena, or is their anxiety grounded in simulation of a concrete, visceral sensation – such as pain – about which they have every right to feel anxious? We show that, when anticipating an upcoming math-task, the higher one’s math anxiety, the more one increases activity in regions associated with visceral threat detection, and often the experience of pain itself (bilateral dorso-posterior insula). Interestingly, this relation was not seen during math performance, suggesting that it is not that math itself hurts; rather, the anticipation of math is painful. Our data suggest that pain network activation underlies the intuition that simply anticipating a dreaded event can feel painful. These results may also provide a potential neural mechanism to explain why HMAs tend to avoid math and math-related situations, which in turn can bias HMAs away from taking math classes or even entire math-related career paths.

New Directions for Research on the Role of Parents and Teachers in the Development of Gender-Related Math Attitudes: Response to Commentaries

We frame our response to the commentaries by Cheryan (2011), Lane (2011), and Shapiro and Williams (2011), in terms of two broad points made by Lane (2011). First, we agree that the various constructs that we termed “math attitudes”—including math-gender stereotypes, math anxiety, math self-concepts, and achievement motivation in math—are in fact distinct (Gunderson et al. 2011b). Nevertheless, we argue that investigating common mechanisms underlying the transmission of these constructs from adults to children is a productive approach because it can lead to general interventions to boost children’s performance and dispositions toward math. Second, we argue that research on the development of gender-related math attitudes exists at the intersection of multiple research areas, including research on attitudes (broadly defined), math, gender, social learning, and child development, and that drawing on well-developed theories in these areas can lead to novel research questions and predictions. The three excellent commentaries broaden the scope of our article on gender-related math attitudes to include the transmission of implicit attitudes from adults to children, stereotype threat, and gender roles in math-related careers (Cheryan 2011; Gunderson et al. 2011b; Lane 2011; Shapiro and Williams 2011).

Understanding the Paradox in Math-Related Fields: Why Do Some Gender Gaps Remain While Others Do Not?

Despite the ubiquity of harmful math attitudes that disadvantage girls, girls are now performing just as well as boys in math in the U.S. (Hyde et al. 1990; Hyde et al. 2008). At the same time, stark gender disparities remain in who chooses to pursue math-related careers (National Science Foundation 2009). Why have gender disparities persisted in some math-related domains but not others? I suggest that considering the extent to which math-related domains are stereotyped as masculine can help explain why women do not seek out math-related careers, even as they perform just as well in math. Changing current stereotypes of math-related careers to make them less incongruent with the female gender role may help to recruit more women into these careers.

The Role of Parents and Teachers in the Development of Gender-Related Math Attitudes

Girls tend to have more negative math attitudes, including gender stereotypes, anxieties, and self-concepts, than boys. These attitudes play a critical role in math performance, math course-taking, and the pursuit of math-related career paths. We review existing research, primarily from U.S. samples, showing that parents’ and teachers’ expectancies for children’s math competence are often gender-biased and can influence children’s math attitudes and performance. We then propose three new directions for future research on the social transmission of gender-related math attitudes. First, parents’ and teachers’ own math anxieties and their beliefs about whether math ability is a stable trait may prove to be significant influences on children’s math attitudes. Second, a developmental perspective that investigates math attitudes at younger ages and in relation to other aspects of gender development, such as gender rigidity, may yield new insights into the development of math attitudes. Third, investigating the specific behaviors and mannerisms that form the causal links between parents’ and teachers’ beliefs and children’s math attitudes may lead to effective interventions to improve children’s math attitudes from a young age. Such work will not only further our understanding of the relations between attitudes and performance, but will lead to the development of practical interventions for the home and classroom that ensure that all students are provided with opportunities to excel in math.