Examining the Impact of Mathematics Motivation on Achievement and Course-taking Behaviors of Low-Income Hispanic and Asian Immigrant Youth.

摘要

The effects of a rigorous mathematics curriculum on the probability of attending and graduating from college are well established (Laird, Cataldi, KewalRamani, & Chapman, 2008; Rose & Betts, 2001). When students are motivated, they invest more time on educational tasks, take more rigorous courses, and set high educational and occupational aspirations (Eccles et al., 1983; Eccles, Wigfield, & Schiefele, 1998; Wang, Eccles, & Kenny, 2013). One way to understand course-taking behavior and achievement is to use a motivational framework that is designed to explain these phenomena. My dissertation uses the Eccles et al. (1983) Expectancy - Value framework to examine the longitudinal associations between motivation and mathematics participation and performance with Hispanic and Asian youth. This study was designed with the intent of augmenting the research on adolescent achievement motives with understudied low- income immigrant and minority populations that are reflective of the growing diversity in current California high schools. First, I address the variability in mathematics participation and performance; second, I address the variability in adolescents' mathematics motivation; and third, I address whether motivation predicts participation, performance, and high school success.;When it comes to mathematics, findings indicate that differences in students' motivations and achievement vary as a function of the measure of success as well as the composition of the population (i.e., by gender, ethnicity, and gender by ethnicity). In terms of mathematics participation and performance, females demonstrate an advantage in mathematics course-taking, advanced course-taking, and high school success (i.e., graduation and college eligibility). However, Hispanic students trailed their Asian schoolmates on both performance and participation outcomes. In regards to motivations for mathematics, results indicated higher interest in mathematics among males and higher cost values among females. As a group, Asians reported higher mathematics attainment value than their Hispanic peers. Expectancy, interest, utility, and cost values were invariant across Hispanic and Asian students.;Expectancy - Value beliefs were associated with participation, performance, and high school success. For Hispanic males in particular, expectancy for success was a consistent and positive predictor of outcomes--course-taking, course grades, as well as increased likelihood of advanced course-taking and high school graduation. High attainment value and reduced cost were also associated with increased course-taking and an increased likelihood of high school graduation among Hispanic females. Interest value was a consistent and positive predictor of performance for Hispanic and Asian students, the only predictor of advanced course-taking (and specifically, only for Hispanic and Asian males), and was positively associated with increased odds of college eligibility among Asians. Cost was negatively associated with cumulative course grades, as well as with the likelihood of graduation and college eligibility among Hispanic females.;Several noteworthy conclusions emerged in response to these findings: the importance of examining achievement in multiple ways; the importance of examining gender by race-ethnic interactions and its implications for conclusions derived about both motivation and achievement; and lastly, the implications of researching subjective task value unidimensionally across groups. Identified differentiations in achievement (whether measured by participation, performance, or more global indicators of attainment) across Hispanic and Asian, males and females, highlight the need to examine achievement in multiple ways. Without sensitivity to these elements (i.e., observing achievement unidimensionally and/or as aggregates of gender or race-ethnic groupings) important information would be missed. Additionally, measuring task value as a monolithic construct (as done in previous literature), or alternatively, examining only interest, attainment, and utility, while excluding costs (as is often is the case in the motivation literature) would have missed some of these important and informative associations between values and achievement.