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Threats and Supports to Female Students’ Math Beliefs and Achievement

– While controlling for prior achievement and race, gendered differential treatment was negatively associated with math beliefs and achievement, whereas relevant math instruction was positively associated with these outcomes.
– Gendered differential treatment by teachers in the 8th grade negatively related to student math importance and math grade within the same year.
– Gendered differential treatment by teachers in the 11th-grade was negatively related to 11th-grade SCMA.
– In 8th and 11th grade, relevant math instruction was positively related to students’ math importance and SCMA
– 8th-grade and 11th grade relevant math instruction had an indirect effect upon math importance via self-concept of math ability.
– Self-concept of math ability in the 8th grade partially mediated the relationship between 8th-grade relevant instruction and self-
concept of math ability in the 11th-grade.
– Maryland Math Achievement scores in the 9th grade partially mediated the relationship between 8th-grade gendered differential treatment and self-concept of math ability in the 11th grade.

Using an opportunity-propensity framework to estimate individual-, classroom-, and school-level predictors of middle school science achievement

When a more comprehensive set of opportunity and propensity variables are used in a SEM to predict eighth-grade science achievement, what are the relative magnitudes of the associations measured in the model, and which opportunity and propensity variables have the strongest relationships to the science achievement outcome?

Expectancy-Value and Children’s Science Achievement: Parents Matter

– Teachers’ expectancy for children’s success in science did not significantly predict students’ fifth grade science achievement.
– Parents’ expectancy did predict students’ fifth grade science achievement.
– Children’s science self-efficacy significantly influenced science achievement scores. This was a weaker influence than the direct effect of parents’ expectancy of children’s success in science.
– None of the dependent variables showed significant difference between genders.
– The influence of parent expectancy on child self-efficacy for science and science achievement is equally strong for both boys and girls.

The Role of Motivation and Cognitive Engagement in Science Achievement

– Elementary students tend to perceive science classes as important, useful, and interesting.
– Students are likely to use various cognitive strategies in science classes.
– The mean science achievement score of 7.36 out of 14 revealed that students have a moderate level of science achievement.
– Self-efficacy and task-value significantly predicted students’ science achievement; cognitive engagement did not.
– Self-efficacy provided the strongest contribution to explaining science achievement. Task value makes the second strongest contribution.
– All independent variables were positively correlated with each other – higher levels of self-efficacy and task value were associated with higher levels of cognitive engagement.
– Student motivation (i.e., self-efficacy and task value) significantly contributed to the prediction of students’ science achievement.
– Positive and significant correlations were found among self-efficacy, task-value and cognitive engagement.
– Cognitive engagement failed to significantly predict students’ science achievement.

Understanding the Relationship Between Parental Education and STEM Course Taking Through Identity-Based and Expectancy-Value Theories of Motivation

This study investigates the relationships between expectancy-value and identity-based motivational variables by examining how these motivational variables predict STEM preparation (i.e., course taking) in high school and college.

Parental Support and High School Students’ Motivation in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics: Understanding Differences Among Latino and Caucasian Boys and Girls

The authors examine if a variety of parental behaviors predict students’ ability self-concepts in and value they place on biology, chemistry, and physics.

The Role of Parental Values and Child-specific Expectations in the Science Motivation and Achievement of Adolescent Girls and Boys

– Student interest in science was most strongly associated with career aspirations.
– Parental values and expectations explained student interest, self-concept, achievement, and career aspirations.
– There were strong associations of parental expectations with a child’s career aspirations, moderate to strong associations with student motivation, and a moderate association with a student’s science achievement.
– Boys had a slightly higher interest in science and a higher self-concept than girls. Correspondingly, girls did not pursue careers in scientific fields as often as boys did.
– There was a significant difference between the self-concept of boys and girls in science only. When parents valued science as important in general, boys showed a significantly higher self-concept than girls did.
– Parental expectations were more strongly related to the interest, self-concept, and achievement of boys than it was to that of girls. In contrast, the high expectations of parents predicted career
aspirations in science equally well for boys and girls.
– In general, parents had higher expectations of their daughters than they did of their sons.
– With respect to the motivation of both boys and girls, parental expectations for a child’s career aspirations in science are more important than parental values are.

College Student Persistence in Scientific Disciplines: Cultural and Social Capital as Contributing Factors

The research questions guiding this study were:
1. What factors and experiences of women of color influence their persistence in science majors?
2. How do sources of capital (cultural and social) contribute to persistence efforts?

Friendship Groups, Personal Motivation, and Gender in Relation to High School Students’ STEM Career Interest

Friendship group characteristics, motivation, and gender were investigated in relation to adolescents’ science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) career interest. First, the authors investigated the extent to which personal motivation and friendship group STEM climate predicted adolescents’ STEM career interest after controlling for gender and other background factors. They hypothesized that the effects of these variables would be domain-specific, such that the friendship group’s STEM climate and students’ sci-ence motivation would predict STEM career interest after controlling for the friendship group’s English climate and students’ English motivation. Finally, they investigated possible moderation effects.