Student Task Persistence in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study: A Major Source of Acheievement Differences at the National, Classroom, and Student Levels.

The Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) contains no direct measures of student ability and motivation. Researchers created a new variable, Student Task Persistence (STP), that is an index of student engagement in providing answers to TIMSS questions on the background questionnaire. The purpose of this research was to investigate the possibility that cross-national differences in mathematics and science achievement can be partly explained by STP. Data came from the TIMSS Student Questionnaire and the TIMSS achievement tests that were administered to national probability samples at grades 3, 4, 7, 8, and the final year of secondary school. Multilevel analyses were undertaken to study the relationships between STP and achievement at student, classroom, and national levels. Evidence suggests that the STP variable is important for two reasons. First, it represents the only available indicator of student ability and motivation to perform the tasks required by TIMSS Second, it is one of the strongest predictors of national differences in mathematics and science achievement. At the eighth grade level, at least, national mean STP scores accounted for well over half of the variation in national mean mathematics and science achievement scores, thereby leaving less than half the national-level variation in achievement to be accounted for by other factors such as student knowledge of mathematics and science content. Two appendixes contain survey questions to be asked after the Student Background Questionnaire and the achievement tests. (Contains 5 tables and 16 references.) (SLD)