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theses

Decrements in mathematics motivation across early adolescence are a concern in the United States, particularly for females and African Americans given their underrepresentation in math-related career pathways. Disturbing trends highlight the need to further understand student motivation during the middle school years, when motivational losses begin. Teacher support is a key contextual factor associated with motivation, however less is known about the role of teacher support as a protective factor against motivational decrements specifically among African Americans and females. The current study utilized a cross-sectional design to examine relationships among mathematics motivation, teacher support, and student characteristics (i.e., race and gender) for 1021 fifth through eighth grade students from a New Jersey school district in a relatively higher-income community. The students completed a survey measuring four aspects of mathematics motivation and two aspects of teacher support. Multiple regression analyses did not replicate previous research showing straight-forward declines in motivation across the middle school years. Unexpectedly, across race and gender, students in later grades reported lower costs associated with math effort and higher expectancy for math success than those in earlier grades. That said, analyses did reveal a concerning trend about two aspects of motivation for females. Comparing responses across grade level, females did not differ in their valuing of math or their future interest in math. Males in later grades, in contrast, reported higher valuing of and future interest in math compared to their male peers in earlier grades. This suggests a gender motivation gap might be initiated toward the end of middle school. Also noteworthy was that teacher support was found to be positively associated with motivation for all students, regardless of gender and race. Thus, teacher support was promotive for all, but not a unique protective factor for African American and female students. In fact, analyses showed that teacher help had a stronger association with the expectancy aspect of motivation for males than for females. Overall, these results highlight the importance of teacher support in math motivation as well as the unique relationships between contextual factors and motivation based on student grade level and gender.

ETD_5669

doi:10.7282/T3S46QDZ

Psy.D.

Includes bibliographical references

by Ashley Marie Dombrowski

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.