Expectancy-value theory mostly focuses on how expectancy and value beliefs are associated with academic achievement. Both expectancy and value beliefs are multidimensional and can be further decomposed into general and specific factors. However, few studies have explored the associations of these general and specific factors with academic…

Given the ongoing development of computer-based tasks, there has been increasing interest in modelling students' behaviour indicators from log file data with contextual variables collected via questionnaires. In this work, we apply a latent regression model to analyse the relationship between latent constructs (i.e., performance, speed, and…

This study assessed the psychometric properties of a digital early mathematics assessment, the Ani Banani Math Test (ABMT) in three samples (N[subscript 1] = 243, N[subscript 2] = 691, N[subscript 3] = 1282) in kindergarten and first grade (age range 4.67-7.30). Confirmatory factor analyses showed that the ABMT appears to measure one general…

In the current study, the appropriateness of the Mathematics Attitude Questionnaire administered to middle school 8th grade students in the TIMSS 2015 application to the exploratory structural equation and confirmatory factor analysis models was examined. The study was conducted on 6079 students making up the sample of Turkey. In the TIMSS 2015…

The Student Background survey administered along with achievement tests in studies of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement includes scales of student motivation, competence, and attitudes toward mathematics and science. The scales consist of positively- and negatively keyed items. The current research…

Although children with specific reading disorder (RD) have often been compared to typically achieving children on various phonological processing tasks, to our knowledge no study so far has examined whether the structure of phonological processing applies to both groups of children alike. According to Wagner and Torgesen (1987), phonological…

Accurate interpretations of large-scale assessment results and sound judgments about students' mathematical literacy depend on these assessments' validity and reliability. One important type of evidence towards this validation is the dimensionality analysis, which explores the conformity between the intended factorial structure (related closely to…

This study makes an important contribution to an expanding body of international comparative studies by exploring factors predicting differences in science and mathematics achievement by students in Turkey and the Republic of Korea on the 2011 TIMSS assessment. While these countries are similar with regards to population size, cultural beliefs…

Background: There is substantial evidence indicating that various psychological processes are affected by cultural context, but such research is comparatively nascent within New Zealand. As there are four large cultural groups in New Zealand, representing an intersection of individualist, collectivist, indigenous, colonial, and immigrant cultures,…

Relationships among motivational constructs from the 2011 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS 2011) were investigated for eight-graders in all the five participating African countries, representing 38,806 (49 % girls). First, we investigated the psychometric properties (factor structure, reliabilities, method effect, and…

Classroom context and climate are inherently classroom-level (L2) constructs, but applied researchers sometimes--inappropriately--represent them by student-level (L1) responses in single-level models rather than more appropriate multilevel models. Here we focus on important conceptual issues (distinctions between climate and contextual variables;…

The aim of this study was to follow up exploratory research suggesting that the inverse relationship between test anxiety and examination performance was mediated by cognitive distortions such as catastrophising. Self-report data for measures of test anxiety and cognitive distortions were collected from students in their final year of compulsory…

The overarching goal of the present study is to investigate the factorial structure of three closely related constructs: math self-concept, math self-efficacy, and math anxiety. The factorial structure consisting of three factors, each representing math self-concept, math self-efficacy, and math anxiety, is supported in all 41 countries employed…

This paper reports the use of several quantitative analytic methods, including Rasch analysis, to re-examine teacher responses to questionnaire items probing opinions related to the compulsory numeracy tests conducted in Years 3, 5, and 7 in Queensland, Australia. Nisbet and Grimbeek (2004) previously reported an interpretable and statistically…

The confounding of chronological and educational age and of schooling and socioeconomic status are persistent problems in the study of the cognitive consequences of schooling. The educational system among the Kharwar in India provides a natural experiment to overcome these problems, since it shows neither source of confounding. The sample…