Promoting Students' Engagement and Achievement in Mathematics: Effects of Interest Fit, Motivation, Resilience, and Self-Efficacy

• In Event: 65.071 - Measuring Social and Emotional Learning Skills Using the Mission Skills Assessment

Abstract

A recent study revealed that U.S. students’ math performance had stagnated and was below average among 65 participating countries/economies (OECD, 2013). Promoting students’ math achievement presents a key challenge for the United States and is critical for the nation’s competitiveness in the global economy. While studies examining the predictors of math achievement traditionally focused on cognitive ability and learning, an increasing volume of literature has highlighted the importance of motivational, personality, and social cognitive factors for math engagement and achievement. These factors include individual interests (e.g., Lubinski & Benbow, 2006), intrinsic motivation (e.g., Covington, 2000), grit or resilience (Trautwein, Lüdtke, Roberts, Schnyder, & Niggli, 2009), and self-efficacy in math (e.g., Lent, Lopez, & Bieschke, 1993). However, research to date has rarely integrated these contributing factors to provide a comprehensive theoretical framework for explaining students’ math achievement. In the current study, we developed and tested such an integrative model, in which students’ interest fit with math, intrinsic motivation, resilience, and math self-efficacy each uniquely predicts math achievement, directly and indirectly through the mediation of math intention (intention in pursuing math activities and careers) and math engagement.

Participants were a subsample of students (N = 1512) involved in the Mission Skills Assessment (MSA). Students’ interests, (student- and teacher-rated) intrinsic motivation and resilience, and students’ math efficacy and math intention were assessed in Fall 2012. Students’ math engagement and math achievement were measured in Fall 2013.

The integrative model fit the data satisfactorily as a structural equation model (χ2 = 2413.219, df = 554; CFI = .94; RMSEA = .047; SRMR = .043). As expected, students’ interest fit with math had a strong effect on math engagement (β = .49) and primarily influenced math achievement through math engagement (β = .26). Student-reported intrinsic motivation had directs effects on math engagement (β = .41) and math achievement (β = -.17), and also indirectly influenced the two outcomes through math intention. Student-reported resilience had a direct effect on math achievement (β = .10). Students’ self-efficacy in math directly influenced math achievement (β = .18) and also exhibited indirect effects through math intention and math engagement. Results for teacher-reported constructs were generally not statistically significant. Note that student- and teacher- ratings were only modestly correlated and had different patterns of prediction.

Importantly, interest fit proved to be a powerful predictor for both math engagement (total effect = .50) and math achievement (total effect = .16). Intrinsic motivation was most predictive of math engagement (total effect = .53). The moderation effects of gender and race/ethnicity for these relationships were also examined.

The current study contributes to the development of an integrative theoretical framework for explaining students’ math achievement, provides insight for causal factors of achievement gaps between genders and among racial/ethnic groups, and suggests potential interventions.

Authors

• Rong Su, Purdue University

• Steven B. Robbins, Educational Testing Service