A modeling study to explain mathematics achievement of tenth grade students

In this study the relationships between 10th grade students? mathematics achievement and mathematics self-concept, mathematics anxiety, beliefs about nature of mathematics, and prior achievement were investigated. The sample of the study consisted of 348 tenth grade students from a public school. For this correlational study, students? academic self-concept was measured by ?Self Concept of Mathematics Academic Ability Scale? developed by Brookover, Erikson and Joiner (1967) and adapted into Turkish by Senemoğlu (1990). Students? beliefs about mathematics is measured by ?Beliefs About Mathematics Subscale? of ?Beliefs About Mathematics and Mathematics Instruction Scale? developed by Collier (1972) and adapted into Turkish by the researcher. For the assessment of mathematics anxiety, ?Mathematics Anxiety Scale? developed by Erktin (1989) was used. Students? logical thinking ability was measured via the ?Test of Logical Thinking Ability? developed by Tobin and Capie (1981) and adapted into Turkish by Geban, Askar and Özkan (1992). Prior mathematics achievement was measured by students? 9th grade mathematics grades in the fall term of 2005-2006 academic year. Students? 10th grade mathematics grades in the fall term of 2006-2006 academic year were used as a measure of mathematics achievement. The findings of the study revealed that the relationships between mathematics achievement, self-concept related to mathematics, mathematics anxiety, beliefs about mathematics, logical thinking ability and prior mathematics achievement were statistically significant. Based on the model developed in the study, it was found that only prior mathematics achievement and mathematics self-concept variables were significant direct predictors of mathematics achievement. Mathematics anxiety and beliefs about mathematics affected mathematics achievement indirectly through academic self-concept. It was identified that logical thinking ability was not a significant direct predictor of mathematics achievement, however it was indirectly related to mathematics achievement with the mediation of other independent variables of the study. It was observed that the model developed in the study explained 48% of variance on mathematics achievement. Key Words: Prior mathematics achievement, mathematics self-concept, mathematics anxiety, beliefs about nature of mathematics, logical thinking, mathematics achievement, predictive modeling of mathematics achievement.