The effects of self-cognition on student’s mathematics performance in China : investigation based on evidence from PISA 2012

Abstract

Mathematical literacy is considered as one of the most important criteria for STEM-related programmes and occupations. Discussions on the factors affecting students’ mathematics achievement have been focusing on different aspects, in which, self-related factors such as gender, anxiety, motivation, self-efficacy and self-concept; factors relevant to home and family background such as socioeconomic status and parental involvement; and factors relevant to school background such as school climate are the most frequently mentioned ones. This research aims to examine the effects of students’ self-cognition on their mathematics performance in China, based on the evidence from PISA 2012. To answer the research questions, firstly, this research identifies special features of Chinese students’ mathematics self-cognition, including mathematics anxiety, motivation for mathematics, mathematics self-efficacy and mathematics self-concept as compared to other regions. Then, this research further investigates how self-cognition might be affected by socioeconomic status and school climate. Lastly, we investigate how self-related constructs affect student’s performance in mathematics and discussions are conducted based on the evidence found. Previous studies mainly focus on investigating the same issue in the context of regions other than China. This research mainly focuses on China. Through this focused perspective of investigation, this research fills the gap of understanding the problem in this typical Confucian heritage culture-based society. Since this research relies on the large-scale PISA dataset, a quantitative research approach is mainly adopted, in which correlation analysis, linear regression and multilevel modelling are applied throughout the investigation. Our statistical analysis shows that there is a unique pattern of students’ self-constructs observed in Shanghai, China that is different from other East Asian neighbours, in which an extremely high level of mathematics self-efficacy is accompanied by a negative level of mathematics self-concept. Besides, a very low level of mathematics anxiety has been observed. This is an unexpected result, since students from most other East Asian countries demonstrate a low level of mathematics self-efficacy and high level of mathematics anxiety as pointed out in previous literature. Regarding the effects of self-constructs on students’ mathematics achievement, mathematics self-efficacy is shown to be the most powerful predictor, as pointed out by some of the previous literature.