Cross-Country Predictive Validities of Non-cognitive Variables for Mathematics Achievement: Evidence based on TIMSS 2015
Jihyun Lee 1 * , Minge Chen 2
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1 Associate Professor, School of Education, University of New South Wales, Sydney, AUSTRALIA2 Research Analyst, Research, Analysis & Sampling Unit, the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), Hamburg, GERMANY* Corresponding Author

Abstract

This study presents empirical findings demonstrating predictive validities of non-cognitive variables for mathematics achievement among primary and secondary school students from cross-country perspectives. Results based on TIMSS 2015 assessment showed that confidence was a moderately strong predictor of mathematics achievement in all TIMSS participant countries (100%). Interest, on the other hand, was a moderately strong predictor in most countries for eighth-graders (77%) but only in about a dozen countries for fourth-graders (20%), showing a stronger interest-achievement link for the secondary school students, from the cross-national perspective. The sense of belonging measure demonstrated a lack of its relevance to primary school students’ achievement. Further, bullying showed predictive relevance for student achievement only in three countries (South Africa, Jordan, and Egypt). The study concludes that while confidence was a universally relevant predictor of student achievement across all countries/regions, predictive utilities of interest, sense of belonging, and bullying appeared to be heavily dependent on a grade-level and country/regional context.

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, 2019, Volume 15, Issue 8, Article No: em1725

https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/106230

Publication date: 08 Apr 2019

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