Measuring Math Educational Outcomes Among Fifth Graders: Association With Self-Concept and Interest

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Abstract

Students’ educational outcomes reflect their knowledge.However, besides the knowledge, self-concept and interest are having a serious effect on educational outcomes.This paper focuses on examining links between math educational outcomes, math self-concept, and interest in this discipline.The study uses a sample of 316 Russian fifth graders.They solved the math test and answered personality questionnaire items.The method of analysis for this study is structural equation modeling.One of the more significant findings to emerge from this study is that high educational outcomes in math associated with the high level of math self-concept.It was also shown that the link between these variables is not moderated by interest in math.These findings suggest an importance of self-concept’s timely measuring.The findings of this study have a number of important implications for future practice of pursuing STEM related degrees.

General Information

Keywords: math educational outcomes, Student Achievements Monitoring, self-concept, interest, structural equation modeling

Journal rubric: Developmental Psychology

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/pse.2019240607

Acknowledgements. The authors are grateful to the Center for International Cooperation in Education Development (CICED)1 for assistance in data collection.

For citation: Lebedeva N.V., Vilkova K.A. Measuring Math Educational Outcomes Among Fifth Graders: Association With Self-Concept and Interest. Psikhologicheskaya nauka i obrazovanie = Psychological Science and Education, 2019. Vol. 24, no. 6, pp. 74–84. DOI: 10.17759/pse.2019240607. (In Russ., аbstr. in Engl.)

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Information About the Authors

Nataliia V. Lebedeva, lecturer, Institute of Psychology and Education, Kazan Federal University, PhD student in Psychology Department, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5019-9033, e-mail: natty.lebedeva@gmail.com

Ksenia A. Vilkova, Junior Research Fellow and Postgraduate Student, Centre of Sociology of Higher Education, Institute of Education, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2161-0409, e-mail: kvilkova@hse.ru

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