Motivation and maths achievement in Turkish students: are they linked with socio-economic status?

Abstract

Turkey is an interesting context to study the applicability of the Expectancy-Value-Theory (EVT), since it is a less well-studied research context with a highly selective, centralised, and competitive education system and a more collectivistic-orientated population. In such a context, well-established factors known to drive students' achievement, as proposed by EVT, might operate differently. Therefore, we investigated how family SES, parents' education-related beliefs and schools' performance level relate to students' motivational beliefs and maths achievement in 15-year-old Turkish students. We used PISA 2012 data to compare the motivational beliefs of Turkish students to the OECD average and to test a path model predicting students' maths achievement. Results indicated that despite lower-than-average performance levels, Turkish students hold comparable or higher motivational beliefs in maths than their peers from OECD countries. The path model results revealed the strongest associations between family SES and maths achievement via schools' performance level and students' competence beliefs.