The contribution of gender, socio-economic status and socio-cultural influence to Turkish students' task value beliefs in science

This study aimed to investigate how well gender, socio-economic status of family, and socio-cultural influences (perceived parents' achievement goals, and perceived teachers' achievement goals) predict middle school students' task value beliefs in science. Background Characteristics Survey, Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire, Perceived Parent Goal Emphases Scale and Perceived Teacher Goal Emphases Scale were administered to 977 middle school students in Turkey which may be viewed as a country possessing characteristics of both individualist and collectivist cultures. Consistent with the findings in individualistic cultures, results showed that middle school students who think that learning new things, improving skills in science are emphasized by their parents and science teachers tend to perceive science tasks as useful, interesting or enjoyable. © Manchester University Press