– 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.
2018 - Threats and Supports to Female Students’ Math Beliefs and Achievement
The authors used the expectancy-value framework to investigate female students’ math motivational beliefs and achievement (Eccles et al., 2005).
This study analyzed data from the Maryland Adolescent Development in Context Study (MADICS; Eccles, 1997). Starting in the fall of 1991, a sample of 1,482 7th graders was surveyed from all 23 public middle schools in Prince George’s County, Maryland. This study uses data from Wave 3 in 1993 (end of students’ 8th-grade year) and Wave 4 in 1996 (during 11th grade). Due to their substantive focus on the impacts of gender-related processes on math beliefs and achievement, the authors created a subgroup of 518 female participants.
DV: Math Importance, Math Achievement (grades from transcripts and standardized tests), Self-Concept of Math Ability (SCMA)
IV: Perceived Gendered Differential Treatment by Teachers, Relevant Math Instruction (student perceptions of how personally meaningful and relevant they believe their math curriculum to be)
Controls: race, prior math achievement
This study uses structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze these data, which simultaneously estimates hypothesized relations among numerous constructs while adjusting for measurement error.