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Using eighth-grade mathematics scores from TIMSS 2003, a large-scale international achievement assessment database, this study investigated correlates of math achievement in two developed countries, Canada and the United States and two developing countries, Egypt and South Africa. Variation in math achievement within and between schools for individual countries was accounted for by a series of two-level HLM models. Specifically, there were five sets of HLM models representing student background, home resources, instructional practices, teacher background, and school background related factors. In addition, a final model was built by including all the statistically significant predictors in earlier models to predict math achievement. Findings from this study suggested that whereas the instructional practices model worked the best for the United States and the teacher background model served as the most efficient and parsimonious model for predicting math achievement in Egypt, the final model served as the best model for predicting math achievement in Canada and South Africa. These findings provide empirical evidence that different models are needed to account for factors related to achievement in different countries. This study, therefore, highlights the importance that policy makers and educators from developing countries should not base their educational decisions and educational reform projects solely on research findings of developed countries. Rather, they need to use their country-specific findings to support their educational decisions. This study also provides a methodological framework for applied researchers to evaluate the effects of background and contextual factors on students' math achievement

As procedural flexibility, previously understood as adaptive reasoning, emerges as an important consideration in math skill development, it is important to account for executive functioning in that process as well, as executive functioning a well-researched factor in math performance. The current study, a secondary data analysis, explores how students rate themselves on the Executive Skills Questionnaire – Revised (ESQ-R), an informal executive skills measure, and how those scores relate to procedural flexibility scores, which accounts for students’ efficiency in math problem solving. Using the factor structure relevant to the current sample, which varies significantly from the current ESQ-R, findings indicate that procedural flexibility is lower in seventh grade when compared to sixth and eighth grades. Perceived executive skills vary positively across sixth, seventh, and eighth grades, indicating more perceived difficulties with executive skills as students move up in grade. Additional analyses explored the relationships between procedural flexibility and ESQ-R scores. Although there was no evidence of a significant relationship between procedural flexibility and ESQ-R scores, the relationship varied across grade level, yielding a negative relationship for sixth grade, a neutral relationship fore seventh grade, and a positive relationship for eighth grade. This pattern indicates that procedural flexibility may become more readily demonstrated, and possibly more valuable, as students gain mastery of skills and procedures and students may become more critical of their executive skills. Procedural flexibility is also highly sensitive to context and curriculum, based on the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. / School Psychology

This study used a quasi experimental design to compare two groups of African American and Latino middle school students' pre- and post engagement after exposure to one of two STEM-related opportunities to learn: one with culturally relevant pedagogy anchored by elements of cognitive apprenticeship; the other without. African-American and Latino middle school students (n=121) recruited from 29 of the lowest performing middle schools in a large urban school district participated. Results indicated no statistically significant change in pre- or post levels of engagement as a result of the different instructional formats. Students exposed to STEM using culturally relevant pedagogy maintained and slightly improved math performance weeks after the program ended; the later group showed a sharp decline in math achievement after the program ended. While it is inconclusive which elements of culturally relevant pedagogy, or cognitive apprenticeship directly affected student math outcomes, this study sets the stage for continued empirical research on how the culture of the learning environment can be adjusted to support minority student engagement and persistence in STEM domains. / Educational Psychology

Den här studien syftar till att undersöka hur elevers matematikprestationer påverkas av eventuell prov- och / eller matematikångest, om det finns åtgärder som reducerar eventuellprov- och / eller matematikångest och om lärarens sätt att examinera har betydelse. För att besvara syftet söker studien svar på hur matematiklärare förstår prov- och / eller matematikångest, på vilket sätt de beskriver att de försöker hjälpa elever att reducera sådan ångest och om matematiklärare ser examinationsformen som faktor för utlösande av prov- och/ eller matematikångest. Resultaten visar att provångest är situationsbunden och utlöses i stressande situationer när personer tror att de befinner sig i en bedömningssituation. Det kan leda till sämre förmåga att koncentrera sig på uppgifterna. Det finns utöver detta risk att den utlösta provångesten triggarigång matematikångest, vilket i sin tur kan leda till ytterligare sämre förmåga att koncentrera sig på uppgifterna, försämrad prestation och dåliga provresultat. Matematikångest kan också utlösas på grund av social påverkan, dåligt självförtroende samt biologiska faktorer, den beror således inte enbart på provångest. För att reducera provångest krävs att lärare får kunskap om hanteringen av känslor som uppstår så att de kan hjälpa elevernaatt förstå och handskas med sina känslor. Åtgärder mot matematikångest handlar om att förebygga att elever hamnar efter i grundläggande kunskaper i matematik, alternativt reparera brister så fort de upptäcks och att undvika och bearbeta negativa associationer förknippat med matematik. Lärare som intervjuades i denna studie hade endast begränsad kunskap om provångest ochmatematikångest och om hur dessa kan reduceras eller förebyggas. Deras svar antydde dessutom att de inte hade kännedom om att det är två olika typer av ångest och att dessa behöver olika sätt för att reduceras eller åtgärdas. De använde inte variation av examinationsformer som ett medel för att hjälpa sina elever trots att de i princip var överens om att olika examinationsformer kan uppfattas som olika stressande och att alternativa examinationsformerskulle kunna reducera denna stress som leder till provångest och eventuellt vidare till utlösandet av matematikångest. Konsekvensen av detta är att elever inte får den hjälpen de behöver, eller att de får fel hjälp och att de därmed riskerar att misslyckas trots att det hade varit möjligt att lösa.