MATHEMATICS ANXIETY ACCORDING TOMIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS' ACHIEVEMENT

MOTIVATION AND SOCIAL COMPARISON

§AHIN

Department of Educational Science

AHMET ERDOGAN

Department of Secondary Science and Mathematics Education

Ahmet Kelesoglu Education Faculty, Selçuk UniversityMeram, Konya, Turkey

The purpose of this study is to clarify whether middle school stu-dents' mathematics anxiety differentiates or not, according totheir low and high achievement motivation and their level ofself-esteem stemming from social comparison. This study alsoaims to clarify the effects of these two variables on mathematicsanxiety. The study groups were comprised of 156 8th grade stu-dents still attending a private tutoring center. The resultsdemonstrated that students with high achievement motivationhave significantly higher mathematics anxiety than those stu-dents with low achievement motivation. Also, this studydetermined that students with low self-esteem have significant-ly higher mathematics anxiety than those students with highself-esteem.

Keywords: Mathematics anxiety; Achievement motivation;Social comparison

IntroductionStudents' acliievement for a course is

related to variables relevant to both stu-dents, and teaching and learning processes.Variables affecting achievement are mul-tidimensional, especially if the course ismathematics. One of the most significantreasons preventing mathematics achieve-ment is mathematics anxiety. Accordingto Meece, Wigfield, and Eccles (1990),mathematics anxiety is most directly relat-ed to students' math ability perceptions,performance expectancies, and value per-ceptions. Jackson and Leffingwell (1999)point out that if the students have bad expe-riences in mathematics during elementaryand secondary schools, mathematics anx-iety occurs and they list mathematics

teachers' behaviors and attitudes causingmathematics anxiety as hostile or insensi-tive, behaving prejudiced towards genders,an uncaring attitude, expressing anger,unrealistic expectations, embarrassing stu-dents in front of peers, communication andlanguage barriers, quality of instruction,evaluation methods, and difficulty of mate-rial. Wigfield and Meece (1988) indicatethe affective component of math anxietyrelated more strongly and negatively thanthe worry component to children's abilityperceptions, performance perceptions, andmath performance. Furner and Duffy(2002) state school system, gender, socioe-conomic status, and parental backgroundmay affect mathematics anxiety. Oberlin(1982) points out that using common teach-

54

Mathematics Anxiety... / 55

ing techniques, such as using the sameteaching method for all students and teach-ing just one method to solve problems,leads to mathematics anxiety. Similary,Harper and Dane (1998) relate mathemat-ics anxiety and mathematics avoidance upto the secondary level with students whohave encountered negative experiencesduring formal education, in addition to alower self confidence, depending uponthese negative experiences. On the otherhand. Cates and Rhymer (2003) associatemathematics anxiety with a vaiùety of vari-ables, such as working memory, age, sex,self-efficacy, mathematics attitudes, testanxiety, and general anxiety.

As seen in the literature above, whenmathematics anxiety is examined, thereare many variables that affect mathemat-ics anxiety. Especially, student'sachievement motivation may play a sig-nificant role in the existence ofmathematics anxiety. Achievement Moti-vation Theory, developed by Atkinson andMcClelland, is defined as the required ten-dency of the individuals in task (forachievement) to achieve success and avoidunachievement (Atkinson, 1957; Atkin-son, 1964; McClelland, Atkinson, Clark, &Lowell, 1953). In Achievement Theory,McCleland (1962) underlines threeneeds —achievement, power, and closerelationship—that are significantly impor-tant variables to determine the behaviorsof the individuals. Murray (1938) explainsthe need for achievement as overcominga difficult task, becoming skilled, over-coming drawbacks and promoting, andbeing perfect, orienting, and regulatingoneself. Nathawat, Singh, and Singh (1997)

stress individuals with low and high lev-els of need for achievement. They state theparticipants, who have a low need forachievement, attribute negative outcomesto factors more internal, stable, and glob-al than those cited by the participants witha high need for achievement. Weiner (1974,1985) maintains that need for achievementis closely related to the perception of theimportance of achievement and unachieve-ment. A low need for achievement isthought to be associated with a sense oflow competence, low expectations, and anorientation towards failure (Atkinson,1964; Atkinson, 1975; Nicholls, 1976).

White (1959) states that the Theory ofCompetence Motivation plays a consider-able role on unification of an individual'scognitive and social (intraperson-al/interpersonal) development. Accordingto White, contradiction stems from the factthat although individualization, crisis, andcommitment are considered as unique vari-ables explaining motivation, such types ofconcepts lack competency, which is verybeneficial for understanding the conceptof motivation. White believes inacquiring skills, like acceptingsocial/occupational roles, depending onunification of individual/social (intraper-sonal/ interpersonal) skills withproblem-solving, keeping emotions undercontrol, satisfaction in relationships, andfeeling competent. He indicates the feel-ing of competency equals the sum of theeffects of an individual's past experiencesof achievements and failures, which con-struct a cognitive structure evaluating anew behavior.

Hart et al. (2007) examined the rela-

56 / Education Vol. 131 No. 1

tionship between the five great variablesand achievement motivation. They foundthat conscientiousness, openness, andextraversion were positively associatedwith intrinsic achievement motivation;whereas, extraversion, conscientiousness,and neuroticism were positively related toextrinsic achievement motivation. Agree-ableness was also found to be negativelyassociated with extrinsic achievementmotivation.

Students evaluate achievement moti-vation according to social comparison,since they may not have an objective cri-teria related to achievement motivation.Festinger (1954) puts forward somehypotheses in his Social Comparison The-ory. The hypothesis which enables us tounderstand how and why social compari-son occurs is, "There exists, in the humanorganism, a drive to evaluate his opinionsand his abilities." (Festinger, 1954, p. 117).When a criteria is uncertain, individualscan eliminate the uncertainity of the eval-uation criteria by making socialcomparisons, while evaluating their ownopinions, abilities, and performance. Inanother hypothesis, the situation occurringin the absence social comparison is indi-cated as, "In the absence of both physicaland social comparisons, subjective evalu-ations of opinions and abilities areunstable." (Festinger, 1954, p. 119).Pietsch, Walker, and Chapman (2003)make it clear that social comparison infor-mation is equally influential in theformation of each construct. Bandura(1997) expresses that when one lacks rel-evant prior experiences with the task athand, social comparison is critically impor-

tant. He also states that not possessingenough firsthand experience, individualsattempt to gauge their percepts of effica-cy by watching how others fare in similaractivities. Administering normative com-parison may also prevent children fromenjoying the learning process and achiev-ing their potential performance (Brickman& Bulman, 1977; Gordijn & Stapel, 2006;Kohn, 1992). In their study, Sarafino et al.(1982) found when social comparison ismade referring to an average individual,social comparison praise is contrasted withfeedback, indicating that children are aver-age, which may have been discouragingfor some high-achieving children.

According to Michinov's (2001) view-point, upward or downward socialcomparison may have positive or negativeeffects on well-being and self-esteem.While upward comparison may have a neg-ative effect, downward comparison mayhave a positive effect. Likewise, Gordijnand Stapel (2006) uphold the fact that inupward and downward comparison states,individuals confronted with someone whodoes better (upward comparison) is some-times inspiring (assimilation), but can alsobe frustrating (contrast). They state, simi-lary, someone who is worse-off thanoneself (downward comparison) can some-times raise one spirits (contrast), but canalso have the opposite effect (assimilation).Marsh (1986) emphasizes social and exter-nal comparison. He argues that studentsbase their academic self-concepts in a par-ticular subject, not only on how their abilitycompares with those of other students (i.e.,social or external comparison), but also onhow their ability in that subject compares

Mathematics Anxiety... / 57

with their abilities in other subjects (i.e.,internal comparison). Marsh also indicatesthat internal comparison is presumed tocreate a negative relationship betweenachievement in one domain and self-con-cept in other domains. In their study,Thwaites and Dagnan (2004) underline theeffects of social comparison on individu-als and other people. The study's findingssupport the prediction that the relationship,between social comparison on a particulardimension and depression, is moderatedby the perceived importance ofthat dimen-sion in attracting the interest of others.

Individuals, who have mathematicsanxiety, may not perform their potentialperformance. In mathematics lessons, thestudent's required achievement motivationmay play a significant role on student'sachievement without experiencing math-ematics anxiety. To emphasize theimportance of this role, it is important tohighlight the features of AchievementMotivation Theory. Thus, the purpose ofthis study is to clarify whether middleschool students' mathematics anxiety dif-ferentiates or not, according to their lowand high achievement motivations, andtheir level of self-esteem stemming fromsocial comparisons. This study aims toclarify the effect of these two variables onmathematics anxiety, as well. In thisrespect, the following questions will beanswered in this study:

1. Is mathematics anxiety of middleschool students with low achieve-ment motivation significantlydifferent from those students withhigh achievement motivation?

2. Is the mathematics anxiety of stu-

dents with positive self-esteem sig-nificantly different from thosestudents with negative self-esteem?

Method

Research ApproachIn this study, the researcher used a quan-

titative method. This quantitative approachallowed the researchers to include a largenumber of subjects. These quantitativedata enabled the researchers to determinewhether significant associations betweenindependent variables (achievement moti-vation and social comparison) anddependent variables (mathematics anxi-ety) exist, using statistical techniques, suchas independent t-test and Cohen's d (Cooli-gan, 1996; Kerlinger, 1986).

Study GroupThe principle of voluntarism was a pre-

condition for participation in this study.Instructional information was preparedabout the implementation of this study.The goal of this research and how the studywould be carried out were clearly stated.In addition, it was emphasized that theidentities ofthe participants would remainconfidential. Participants in this study wererandomly selected among the 8th gradestudents still going a private tutoring cen-ter in Konya City, Turkey. The sampleconsists of 156 students —86 males(55.1%) and 70 females (44.9%).

InstrumentsTo collect data for the study, we used a

"Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale,""Achievement Motivation Scale," and

58/Education Vol. 131 No. 1

"Social Comparison Scale." They are dis-cussed below.

Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale:The mathematics anxiety rating scale wasdeveloped by Richardson and Suinn (1972)to measure levels of mathematics anxiety.It consists of 98 items. The participantsare required to rate each item according to"the degree of anxiety it causes when theparticipant carries it out nowadays." Atotal of the scale points is obtained by sum-ming all points given to the items. Higherpoints are signs of higher mathematics anx-iety. The range for the total scale points isbetween 98 and 490. The reliability of thetest, analyzed by Baloglu (2005) in termsof Turkish language validity and pre-psy-chometric analysis, is examined by usingthe consistency of the items method. Hedetermined the internal consistency coef-ficient of the scale is 0.97.

Achievement Motivation Scale:Developed by Umay (2002), AchievementMotivation Scale consists of 14 items andis three-dimensional. This scale measuresthe achievement motivation of studentswho are expected to have high achieve-ment motivations. The reliabilitycoefficient (Cronbach's alpha ) of the scaleis calculated as .75.

Social Comparison Scale: The SocialComparison Scale was developed byGilbert, Alllan, and Trend (1991) andadapted into Turkish by §ahin and §ahinin 1992 (Gilbert,Alllan, and Trend, 1991;§ahin, and §ahin, 1992; adapted by Sava§irand §ahin, 1997). It is a kind of self-eval-uation scale measuring how individualsperceive themselves when they comparethemselves with others, based on various

dimensions. It is two-dimensional and con-sists of 18 items. The internal consistencycoefficient (Cronbach's alpha) of the scaleis calculated to be .87.

Analysis of The DataFirst, the data collected for this study

were coded with the SPSS 15.0 packageprogram for statistical data analysis. Later,the mean scores obtained from Achieve-ment Motivation Scale were examined toclassify (low and high) the achievementmotivation of the students (mean = 23.52).The scores below the mean were classi-fied as low and the ones above it wereclassified as high. Since high scores relat-ed to social comparison are the sign ofpositive self-esteem and low scores are ofnegative self-esteem; the mean of thesescores obtained from Social Comparisonwas calculated (83.66). Students, whosescores were below the mean, were classi-fied as individuals possessing negativeself-esteem, while the others, whose scoreswere above the mean, were classified asstudents with positive self-esteem.

An independent t-test was used to testthe relationship between the achievementmotivation and social comparison of stu-dents and their mathematics anxiety.Cohen's method was employed to deter-mine the statistical effects, of the variablesof students' achievement motivation lev-els and social comparison levels, on theirmathematics anxiety.

Mathematics Anxiety... /59

Table I. Middle School Students ' Mathematics Anxiety According to Achievement

Motivation

Mathematics

Anxiety

AchievementN

Motivation

Low Level 80

High Level 76

Mean

179.23

197,43

Std. Dev.

50.60

54,43

-t- P

-2.163* 0.032

Cohen's

d

.522

Table 2. Middle School Students' Mathematics Anxiety According to Social Comparison

Mathematics

AnxietySocial Comparison

Negative self-esteem

Positive self-esteem

A'

63

93

Mean

207,20

175,16

Std.Dev.

53.07

49,38

-t- P

3.85* 0.000

Cohen's

d

.948

Results

Mathematics Anxiety According to Achieve-

ment Motivation

To test mathematics anxiety of middleschool students in terms of achievementmotivation level, an independent t-test wasused. The results of this analysis (see TableI) showed that mathematics anxiety of stu-dents possessing high achievementmotivation is significantly higher thanthose students possessing low achievementmotivation (t=-2.163, p< .05). The valuesemerging from calculations with Cohen'smethod revealed statistical effects the vari-able of achievement motivation level hason students' mathematics anxiety. It wasdemonstrated that the amount of effect ismedium (see Table 1).

Mathematics Anxiety According to Social

Comparison

An independent t-test technique wasused to test mathematics anxiety in termsof students' social comparison levels. Theresults of this analysis revealed that math-ematics anxiety of the students possessingnegative self-esteem is significantly high-er than those possessing positiveself-esteem (t=3.85,p< .05) (seeTable 2).

The values obtained from Cohen'smethod are intended to reveal the statisti-cal effects the variable of social comparisonhas on mathematics anxiety. It was deter-mined the amount of this effect is high formathematics anxiety.

60/Education Vol. 131 No. 1

Discussion and ConclusionsMiddle school students' mathematics

anxiety differentiates, depending upon thelevel of accomplishment motivation andsocial comparison, and the achievementmotivation level that affects mathematicsanxiety. This stems from the fact that stu-dents study with the aim of beingsuccessful. However, in this process, hop-ing to prove they are better than their peers,they compare themselves with their peersinstead of determining their own defi-ciencies and mistakes. Students desire toknow how they are similar to and differ-ent from their peers and assign directionsof social comparison (Schunk, 2000). Themost striking finding of this study is theeffect level of achievement motivation onmathematics anxiety is medium and thegroup with high mathematics anxiety con-sists of those students with highachievement motivation. Nathawat et al.'s(1997) indication that people, who have ahigh need for achievement, attributed suc-cesses to their own ability and efforts, andfailures to task difficulty; whereas, peo-ple, who have a low need for achievement,felt responsible only for failures. This dis-covery is important in terms ofinterpretation of the striking finding of thisstudy.

Schunk (2000) states that mathematicscompetence consists of computationalskills and problem-solving skills; thus,mathematics has task difficulty, and stu-dents with high achievement motivationcan experience mathematics anxietybecause of this task difficulty. Since stu-dents with high achievement motivationfeel more task difficulty in mathematics.

they encumber less internal factors, suchas ability and effort, under successful con-ditions and more to external factors, suchas task difficulty, under failure conditionsthan people who have a low need forachievement (Kukla, 1972; Weiner &Kukla, 1970). It is important to take respon-sibility, like the students with highachievement motivation, to be successfulat numbers, calculations, and problem-solving, the subjects in which mathematicsanxiety may occur. However, students withlow achievement motivation take respon-sibility for their failures (Ketz, 1967;Weiner & Kukla, 1970).

Social comparison's effect level onmathematics anxiety is large and studentswith negative self-esteem experience moremathematics anxiety compared to studentswith positive self-esteem. This is an indi-cator of the significance of socialcomparison on mathematics anxiety. Thisindicator stems from the fact that studentsdevelop negative self-esteem and they eval-uate their potential negatively, since theyperform upward comparison, because self-concept beliefs are more heavily influencedby processes of social comparison thanefficacy beliefs (Bong & Clark, 1999).Similarly, Bong and Skaalvik (2003) arguethat self-concept has a cognitive and anaffective components. Especially, the self-concept is partially formed through thereflected appraisals of others and self-effi-cacy is significant in forming a positiveself-concept. Self-efficacy is primarilybased on perceptions of mastery rather thannormative criteria (Zimmerman, 1995).Besides self-efficacy beliefs, academicself-concept is important for students in

Mathematics Anxiety... / 61

forming positive self-esteem. Felson( 1984) considers academic self-concept asself-perceptions of ability. He suggests aca-demic self-concept as a reason why theseself-percepts affect performance becauseof their effect on students' efforts, persis-tence, and anxiety. Collins (1982) found,when prior performance is controlled, chil-dren with high self-efficacy outperformchildren with low self-efficacy in the com-pletion of novel math problems, showgreater effort, and persist longer in rework-ing incorrect problems. Randhawa,Beamer, and Lundberg (1993) found thatgeneralized math self-efficacy mediatesthe effect of various math attitudes on mathachievement. Pietsch et al. (2003) exam-ined the relationship among self-concept,self-efficacy, and performance in mathe-matics. They state that social comparisoninformation is equally influential in theformation of each construct. Also, self-efficacy beliefs are identified as mosthighly related with performance in math-ematics and percentages.

In conclusion, students should increasetheir achievement motivation and do theirbest to recognize the task-difficulty ofmathematics. In addition, they should eval-uate their successes and failures, based onthe criteria related to themselves (self-con-cept, academic self-concept, andself-efficacy) —not social comparison.They can increase their success at mathe-matics and decrease mathematics anxiety,if they have a positive self-concept, acad-emic self-concept, and increaseself-efficacy.

ReferencesAtkinson, J.W. (1957). Motivational of risk-tak-

ing behavior . Psychological Review, 64,359-372.

Atkinson, J.W. (1964). An introduction to motiva-tion. Princeton, NJ: Van Nostrand.

Atkinson, J.W. (1975). Motivation for achieve-ment. In T. Blan (Ed.), A theory of achievementmotivation. New York: Wiley.

Baloglu, M. (2005). Adaptation of the mathemat-ics anxiety rating scale to Turkish language:Validity and preliminary psycometric proper-ties. Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice,5(1), 23-30.

Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The Exercise ofcontrol. New York: W. H. Freeman and Com-pany.

Bong, M., & Clark, R.E. (1999). Comparisonbetween self-concept and self-efficacy in aca-demic motivation research. EducationalPsychologist, 34(3), 139-153.

Bong, M., & Skaalvik, E. (2003). Academic self-concept and self-efficacy: How different arethey really? Educational Psychology Review,15, 1-40.

Brickman, P., & Bulman, R.J. (1977). Pleasure andpain in social comparison. In J. M. Suis & R.L.Miller (Eds.), Social comparison processes:Theoretical and empirical perspectives. Lon-don: Hemisphere.

Cates, G.L., & Rhymer, K.N. (2003). Examiningthe relationship between mathematics anxietyand mathematics performance: An instruction-al hierarchy perspective. Journal of BehavioralEducation, J2{\), 22-34.

Collins, J.L. (1982). Self-efficacy and ability inachievement behavior. Paper presented at themeeting of the American Educational ResearchAssociation, New York.

Cooligan, H. (1996). Introduction to researchmethods and statistics in psychology (SecondEdition), London: Hodder & Stoughton.

Felson, R.B. (1984). The effect of self-appraisalsof ability on academic performance. Journalof Personality and Social Psychology, 47,944-952.

62/Education Vol. 131 No. 1

Festinger, L. (1954). A theory of social compari-son processes. Human Relations, 7, 117-140.

Fumer, J.M., & Duffy, M.L. (2002). Equity for allstudents in the new millennium: Disablingmath anxiety. Intervention in School & Clinic,38(2), 67-74.

Gordijn, E.H., & Stapel, D.A. (2006). Behaviour-al effects of automatic interpersonal versusintergroup social comparison. British Journalof Social Psychology, 45(4), 717-729.

Harper, N.W., & Daane, C.J. (1998) Causes andreduction of math anxiety in preserviceelementary teachers. Action in Teacher Edu-cation, 79(4), 29-38.

Hart, J.W., Stasson, M.F., Mahoney, J.M., & Story,P. (2007). The big five and achievement moti-vation: Exploring the relationship betweenpersonality and a two-factor model of motiva-tion. Individual Differences Research, 5(4),267-274.

Jackson, CD. , & Leffingwell, R.J. (1999). Therole of instructor in creating math anxiety instudents from kindergarten through college.Mathematics Teacher, 92(7), 583-586.

Kerlinger, F.N. (1986). Foundations of behavioralresearch. NY: Holt.

Ketz, I. (1967). The socialization of academicmotivation in minority group children D.Levine (Ed.), Nebraska Symposium on Moti-vation, (15, 133-191). Lincoln: University ofNebraska Press.

Kohn, A. (1992). No contest: The case againstcompetition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Kukla, A. (1972). Attributional determinants ofachievement related behaviour. Journal of Per-sonality and Social Psychology, 21, 166-174.

Marsh, H.W. (1986). Verbal and math self-con-cepts: An internal/external frame of referencemodel. American Educational Research Jour-nal, 23, 129-149.

McCleland, D.C. (1962). Business drive andnational achievement. Harward BusinessReview, 40, 99-\\2.

McClelland, D.C, Atkinson, J.W., Clark, R.W., &Lowell, E.L. (1953). The achievement motive.New York Appleton-Century-Crofts.

Meece, J.L., Wigfield, A., & Eccles, J.S. (1990).Predictors of math anxiety and its influence onyoung adolescents' course enrollment inten-tions and performance in mathematics. Journalof Educational Psychology, 82(\), 60-70.

Michinov, N. (2001). When downward producesnegative affect: The sense of control as a mod-erator. Social Behavior and Personality, 29(5),427-444.

Murray, H.A. (1938). Explorations in personality.New York: Oxford University Près.

Nathawat, S.S., Singh, R.,& Singh, B. (1997). Theeffect of need for achievement on attribution-al style. The Journal of Social Psychology,137(\), 55-62.

Nicholls, J.G. (1976). Effort is virtuous, but it isbetter to have ability: Evaluation responses toperception of ability and effort. Journal ofResearch in Personality, 10, 306-315.

Oberlin, L. (1982). How to teach children to hatemathematics. School Science and Mathemat-ics, 82,261.

Pietsch, J., Walker, R., & Chapman, E. (2003).Therelationship among self-concept, self-efficacy,and performance in mathematics during sec-ondary school. Journal of EducationalPsychology, 95(3), 589-603.

Randhawa, B.S., Beamer, J.E., & Lundberg, 1.(1993). Role of mathematics self-efficacy inthe structural model of mathematics achieve-ment. Journal of Educational Psychology, 85,

Richardson, F.C, & Suinn, R.M. (1972). Themathematics anxiety rating scale: Psychomet-ric data. Journal of Counseling Psychology,79,551-554.

Sarafino, E.P., Russo, A., Barker, J., Consentino,A., & Titus, D., Jr. (1982). The effect ofrewards on intrinsic interest: Developmentalchanges in the underlying processes. The Jour-nal of Genetic Psychology, 141,29-39.

Sava§ir, L, & §ahin, N.H. (1997). Evaluation incognitive-behaviorist theraphies: Eavoritescales [Bili§sel-davrani§çi terapilerde deger-lendirme: Sik kullanilan olçekler]. Ankara:Turk Psikologlar Demegi Yaymlan.

Mathematics Anxiety... / 63

Schunk, D.H. (2000). Learning theories: An edu-cational perspective. NewJersey: MerrillPrentice Hall.

Thwaites, R., & Dagnan, D. (2004). Moderatingvariables in the relationship between socialcomparison and depression: An evolutionaryperspective. Psychology and Psychotherapy:Theory, Research and Practice, 77(3),309-323.

tJmay, A. (2002). Level of achievement motiva-tion of mathematics teacher candidates, changeof achievement motivation and factors effectsthis change [Matematik ogretmen adaylanninba§an güdüsü düzeyleri, degiçimi ve degiçimietkileyen faktörler]. Hacettepe UniversityJournal of Education [Hacettepe ÜniversitesiEgitim Fakültesi Dergisi], 22, 148-155.

Weiner, B. (1974). Achievement motivation andattribution theory. Morristown, NJ: GeneralLearning Press.

Weiner, B. (1985). "Spontaneous" causal search.Psychological Bulletin, 97, 74-84.

Weiner, B., & Kukla, A. (1970). An attributionalanalysis of achievement motivation. Journalof Personality and Social Psychology, 15,1-20.

White, R.W. (1959). Motivation reconsidered: Theconcept of competence. The PsychologicalReview, 66, 297-330.

Wigfield, A., & Meece, J.L. (1988). Math anxietyin elementary and secondary school students.Journal of Educational Psychology, 80(1),210-216.

Zimmerman, B.J. (1995). Self-efficacy and edu-cational development. In A. Bandura (Ed.),Self-efficacy in changing societies (pp.202-231). New York: Cambridge UniversityPress.

Copyright of Education is the property of Project Innovation, Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed

to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However,

users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.