Özet:

This study examined gender differences in influential antecedent learning factors that are associated with math achievement. Using the dataset extracted from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002, structural equation modeling yields three major findings: (a) social economic status (SES), educational aspiration for attaining an educational degree, total AP/IB math courses, and the degree of advanced math course taking are significantly related with math self-efficacy (p<. 001); (b) female students have better preparation in math through taking advanced math courses (p<.001) and have higher educational aspiration in obtaining advanced degrees (p<.001), while having significantly lower math self-efficacy than male students (p<.001); and (c) given the finding that female students have lower math achievement than male students (p<.001), math self-efficacy is the most critical antecedent learning factor for female students affecting math achievement. These results suggest that for female students, how to enhance math self-efficacy is a critical matter to improve math achievement.

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