The present study explored the direct influences of contextual social support, including parental involvement, perceived teacher support, and peer influence, on 11th-grade students' math achievement. The study also examined the indirect influences of these contextual social support factors on students' achievement through their math motivation in math courses. The first follow-up year data of High School Longitudinal Study of 2012 (HSLS: 09) was used for this study. Structural equation modeling (SEM) served as the main statistical technique to examine the relationships among variables. The results of this study showed three sets of important findings. The first set showed that students' perception of teacher support and peer influence were significantly and directly related to students' math achievement, with the relationship between peer influence and math achievement being positive and the relationship between perceived teacher support and math achievement being negative. Controlling for other variables in the model, parental involvement was not significantly related to student math achievement. The second set of findings demonstrated that math motivation indeed plays a significant role in mediating the relationships of social support (from teachers and peers, but not from parental involvement) and student math achievement in high school. The third set of findings indicated that both family SES and prior math achievement influenced student social support and math achievement. Furthermore, two main deviations were found between White/Asian and African-American/Hispanic student models. Perceived teacher support negatively and significantly influenced White/Asian students' math achievement, but it had no significant influence on African-American/Hispanic students. In addition, math motivation had a stronger influence on the math achievement for White/Asian students than African-American/Hispanic students. The present study makes significant theoretical and practical contributions to the body of knowledge on the role of parental involvement, perceived teacher support, and peer influence on math achievement at the high school level using nationally representative data. / PHD

In recent years, considerable concern has arisen over cross-national student’s math achievement. A number of studies focusing on eighth grade student’s math achievement have been published. However, the most important role we should consider is not only students, but also teachers. A good teaching training program could help teachers improve their teaching expertise and student’s math achievement. Moreover, most studies only focused on explained predictions of the effect between potential factors. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to implement a hierarchical linear model and cluster analysis techniques to re-examine the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011 among eighth grade students in the United States (U.S.), South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan. These techniques were applied to provide a teacher characteristics and student math achievement model and identify a new institutional typology based on the pattern of teacher characteristic types and countries. Based on these patterns and model, this study presented the findings, as well as suggestions for improving educational policies and teaching training program in, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, and the U.S.

Poor achievement on standardized math tests negatively impacts high school graduation rates. The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate if math instruction in business classes could improve student achievement in math. As supported by constructivist theory, the students in this study were encouraged to use prior knowledge and experiences to make new connections between math concepts and business applications. The key research question examined if there was a significant increase in the standardized mathematics test scores of students enrolled in business classes with extended mathematics instruction compared to the standardized test scores of students not enrolled in business classes with extended mathematics instruction. The 2-sample t-test was used to compare the scores of 42 students in the treatment group to the scores of 47 students in the control group. Based on the findings, there was not a significant difference in the scores of the treatment and control groups. Recommendations for future research included redesigning the treatment to involve additional areas of mathematics instruction as well as extending the number of weeks for the treatment. This study may effect social change by informing teachers and administrators at the local site of the need to examine the effects of incorporating math into other content areas and recommending continued research in this area. The additional exposure, practice, and learning opportunities in math may help high school students achieve in mathematics and ultimately improve graduation rates.

The Latino population in the United States is projected to increase significantly in the upcoming years as well as the numbers of Latino students enrolled in public schools. These schools are challenged with a gap in Latino student achievement when compared to White non-Hispanic students. Studies indicate that parental involvement in school settings has been correlated to student achievement and that parental involvement is lower for Latino parents than White parents. The purpose of this research study was to examine the relationship between parental involvement of seventh grade middle school Latino students and students’ reading and mathematics achievement. The study also examined selected relevant demographic variables, including socioeconomic status, parents’ level of education, single versus two-parent families, and the gender of the students and parents. The theoretical framework that supported this research study was derived from Joyce Epstein’s (1991) model for parental involvement.

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The problem of this study was to determine whether learning styles of students affect their math achievement scores on the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills Test. The research questions addressed relevant to this study were: 1. Is there a positive correlation between students' learning styles and their achievement test scores in mathematics? 2. Is there a positive correlation between specific sub group's (as deemed by the state of Texas) and gender's learning styles and their achievement test scores in mathematics? The Pearson Product Moment Correlation coefficient and the Point-biserial correlation analysis was applied to the data collected from 500 fifth grade students attending a North Texas Intermediate school. The significance level was established at the .05 level. Part of the data was the student's responses to the Learning Style Inventory by Dunn, Dunn and Price. The findings established that the learning style preferences of all students in the area of persistence significantly impacted their math achievement scores. Gender and ethnicity were mitigating factors in the findings. These learning style preferences significantly impacted achievement in the following ways: * Caucasian students' preference of a high level of persistence in completing a difficult task. * Hispanic students' preference for a warm learning environment and motivational factor of pleasing the teacher. * Afro-American students' preference for kinesthetic learning. * Female students' learning style preferences appear in: - the design of the learning environment - the need for intake of food and/or drink - a high level of responsibility - a high sense of self-motivation , of teacher and of parent motivation. * Male students' learning style preferences appear in: - a warm learning environment - a high level of responsibility - the need for intake of food and/or drink - a high sense of teacher and of parent motivation - a late morning learning In summary, the author suggests that supplying the teachers with information concerning students' learning style preferences will benefit student achievement.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Miami University, Dept. of Psychology, 2007. / Title from second page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 51-56).

本論文從教育社會學角度探討造成數學成就性別差異現象的成因，以班級的性別環境為研究脈絡，研究影響國中女生數學成就的可能原因。假設數學成就的性別差異是受到後天學習歷程影響，班級環境中隱含的性別刻板印象為其中一個重要社會文化影響因素。透過比較國一到國三階段女生班和一般男女合班女生數學成就的異同，嘗試找出造成數學成就性別差異現象的成因，是否與班級性別環境、師生的性別刻板印象等因素有關。利用階層線性模式（Hierarchical Linear Models，HLM）統計方法，分析資料取自由中央研究院、教育部和國科會共同規劃的全國性長期的調查計畫：「台灣教育長期追蹤資料庫」（Taiwan Education Panel Survey，簡稱TEPS）。研究結果發現女生班、數學老師性別及班級學業氣氛等因素對於國中女生數學成就有顯著影響力，但進一步考慮學校公私別變項之後，女生班的影響力即消失。 / The main purpose of this study is to assess the magnitude of individual and contextual influences to explain gender differences in math achievements. Adopting the hierarchical linear model analysis to determine whether or not statistically significant differences between the mathematical achievements of 7th grade students who attend all-girls classes compared with those who attend coeducational classes at the same time, and their academic performance after two years. The result shows that there are three factors that have significant influences on girls’ math achievement in junior high schools, which are the single-sex classes, female math teachers and the academic climate of each class. However, if private schools are taken into consideration, the significant influence of the gender composition of classes will disappear.