Students’ math self-concept and correlates: Some preliminary findings
In Nov 2002, a research team in the National Institute of Education, NTU, launched a cross-discipline quasi-experimental study on “Positive Social Climate for Enhancing Students’ Math Self-concept”. Its main objective is to find the attributes (variables) in the social climate which are accountable for the increase of self-concept of Secondary Two students in the Math remedial classes in Singapore neighbourhood schools. Phase One of this study is Instrumentation: validating the scales used in the measurement of treatment effect. Phase Two is Intervention: the teachers’ / tutors’ interactions with students, the enhancement of students’ capabilities and confidence. These teachers / tutors will attend workshops conducted before the intervention in Phrase Two. The Pretest results will help identify students with high or low Math Self-concept. And the Posttest will help measure the effect of invention on these students’ Math Self-concept. Factors contributed to the significant changes will also be explored. H.W. Marsh’s Self-Description Questionnaire (SDQ-II, 1990) and B. Fraser’s “What is happening in this Class?” questionnaire were validated together with the Motivational Orientation scale and Intellectual Achievement Responsibility (IAR) questionnaire in Phase One. More than 700 Secondary Two students from four neighbourhood schools took part in the survey. Some preliminary findings in Phase One of this study will be presented in this paper. Gender and course differences in Math Self-concept and other variables will also be discussed.
Positive social climate for enhancing students' math self-concept: Some research findings
In Nov 2002, a research team in the National Institute of Education, NTU, launched a cross-discipline quasi-experimental study on “Positive Social Climate for Enhancing Students’ Math Self-concept”. Its main objective was to find the attributes (variables) in the social climate which are accountable for the increase of self-concept of Secondary Two students in the Math remedial classes in Singapore neighbourhood schools. Phase I of this study ( in 2003) was Instrumentation: validating the scales used in the measurement of treatment effect. H.W. Marsh’s Self-Description Questionnaire (SDQ-II, 1990), and B. Fraser’s “What Is Happening In This Class?” questionnaire (WIHIC) were validated together with the Motivational Orientation scale and Intellectual Achievement Responsibility (IAR) questionnaire. More than 700 Secondary Two students from four neighbourhood schools took part in this validating exercise. Phase II was Intervention`(in 2004): the teachers’ interactions with students, the enhancement of students’ capabilities and confidence. A training workshop for teachers in the experimental groups was conducted before the intervention. Two schools had the experimental groups and another two neighbourhood schools’ samples were held as the control groups of this study. Based on the results in Phase I, only two instruments: SDQII and WIHIC were selected to measure the effect of intervention. The total sample in this phase was close to 1000 Sec 2 students.