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Based on the expectancy-value perspective on identity and identity formation, this paper explores the relationship between math identity (MI) and the dimensions of motivation (i.e. intrinsic value, attainment value, utility value and perceived competence) and math achievement in primary school. An additional aim of our research was to explore these relationships in different cultural contexts and investigate potential gender and grade differences concerning MI. The participants were 11,782 primary school students from Norway, Sweden, Estonia, Finland, Portugal and Serbia. All predictors from the motivation spectrum were significant for students' MI across the examined countries and had a stronger association with MI than math achievement. Among the motivational dimensions, intrinsic value had the strongest association with students' MI. Boys had significantly more positive math identities than girls in Estonia, Finland, Norway and Portugal. The results showed that the grade 4 students perceived themselves less as "math persons" than their grade 3 peers in all countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This cross-sectional study looks into how students' perceived teacher support is linked to achievement emotions in mathematics via academic control and value. The data was gathered from 602 secondary students (13-16-year-olds) in 16 mathematics classrooms from three public schools in Jiangsu province, China. Participants were asked to respond to the paper-pencil questionnaire assessing students' perceived teacher support, cognitive appraisals, and achievement emotions in mathematics. Findings showed that cognitive appraisals played complete mediation roles in teacher support and achievement emotions. Intrinsic value and mathematics self-concept were shown to serve a positive role in teacher support and achievement emotions, whereas extrinsic value was found to play a negative one. Besides, teacher support showed the greatest indirect effect on achievement emotions through mathematics self-concept. Lastly, findings indicated the great relevance of teacher support to students' anger, boredom, enjoyment and relaxation in mathematics classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents results of a score interpretation study for a computer adaptive mathematics assessment. The study purpose was to test the efficacy of item developers' alignment of items to Range Achievement‐Level Descriptors (RALDs; Egan et al.) against the empirical achievement‐level alignment of items to investigate the use of RALDs as the epicenter of the test score interpretation validity argument. Item developers aligned 82%–87% of items in a computer adaptive item bank for Grades 3–8 mathematics to the assessment's RALDs that had been reconciled to the test scale after standard setting. The degree of consistency between the hypothesized alignment and actual alignment was examined using agreement statistics. Item developers correctly identified the empirical achievement level of 56%–60% of the items, which was above the chance level of agreement. An emerging technique known as embedded standard setting (ESS; Lewis and Cook) was then used to evaluate whether score interpretations based on item developer classifications of items to RALDs were comparable to the score interpretations derived from the cut scores set in 2018. Score interpretations for the first two achievement levels were consistent across administrations; however, for the most advanced students score interpretations were not maintained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Arithmetic knowledge has long been known as an essential factor for educational and vocational success.Aims: This study aims to explore the effectiveness of a process-based Executive Function (EF) intervention program on the improvement of components of arithmetic.Methods and Procedure: A goal-directed sampling method was applied in this study. Participants were assigned into active control and experimental groups. Semi-experimental design with pre-test, post-test and follow-up was utilized in this research. Participants were included in this study based on their WISC-IV and Key-Math test performance. 30 male students aged 8-10 years with a formal diagnosis of Developmental Dyscalculia (DD), selected from a learning disability center in Ahvaz, Iran, participated in the study. The pre-test took 1 month, the intervention including 17 sessions, took two months and the post-test took 1 month. All the students' arithmetic knowledge were tested in pre-test, post-test, and 3 months after post-test to test the longevity of the intervention effects. Repeated measure Univariate Analysis of Variance was conducted in this study.Outcomes and Results: The results indicate that the students who attended the intervention, outperformed control group in the components of factual and procedural arithmetic in post-test and follow-up, however; the performance of two groups in conceptual knowledge was not different. This study contributes to the emerging evidence that EF intervention may improve factual and procedural arithmetic knowledge in children with DD.Conclusions and Implications: Process-based EF interventions can improve arithmetic knowledge of students with DD, which can contribute to the literature of this area WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS?: The current research helps cognitive science to present a more meticulous theoretical and conceptual pattern for EF components and math, using process-based EF intervention programs with arithmetic content. Furthermore, this research allows for specification of cognitive fundamentals of arithmetic development and understanding the mechanisms underlying the transfer effect of EF intervention to math. The findings of this research can contribute to evidence-based EF intervention studies and help educational psychologists in preparation of appropriate curricula based on the fundamental components of arithmetic development in preschool and primary school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tests whether barely obtaining a pass score in at least one of two midterm tests has an effect on subsequent achievement in a Math course. To estimate the effect, we created a novel dataset by linking administrative and survey data on students at a medium size Spanish university and used a regression discontinuity design in which the cutoff is 5, i.e., the pass score in the national grading system. Although obtaining a score just equal to or barely greater than 5 in midterm tests has no immediate consequence for students, it may have a psychological effect by acting as a (de)motivating signal to study and pass the course, with the sign of the effect being unclear ex-ante. We find that obtaining a pass score in at least one midterm has a positive effect on the final exam score. The result seems to be explained by higher students' motivation when jointly accounting for their effort. Overall, our results suggest that partly unexplored psychological mechanisms may help us deepen our understanding of the determinants of achievement in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]