Motivational Beliefs and Chinese Students’ Achievement: Findings From a Chinese Large-Scale Assessment

• In Event: Roundtable Session 19
  In Roundtable Session: Research on Student Perceptions and Teacher Reflections on Assessment: Lessons Learned

Abstract

This study used a large scale assessment program developed in China and examined the factorial structure of motivational belief items and how these beliefs contribute to Chinese students’ math achievement and their general problem solving ability. The preliminary explanatory factor analysis showed that motivational beliefs in this assessment had four factors: self-efficacy, attribution, intrinsic, and extrinsic values. Results from hierarchical multiple regression indicated that all four factors significantly predict students’ math achievement and their problem solving ability. The regression models explained more variance in students’ problem solving ability (10%) than that in math achievement (3%) after students’ family characteristics were controlled.

Authors

• Haiying Long, Florida International University

• Weiguo Pang, East China Normal University