Gendered achievement-related choices and behaviours in Mathematics and English : the nature and influence of self-, task- and value perceptions

The present study investigates students’ gendered achievement-related choices and behaviours in mathematics and English, using the Expectancy-Value theory of achievement motivation developed by Eccles and colleagues, which is the most prominent current model predicting academic choices in the form of course enrolments. The central social issue addressed in this thesis is the differential participation in higher-level mathematics by girls and boys, in both their senior high school years and intended careers. Key questions investigated are first, to what extent do boys plan to participate in maths to a greater extent than girls, both in senior high and in their planned careers? Second, what are the predictive influences of gender, expectancies, values and task demands on maths participation and achievement-related behaviours? Third, what is the nature and development of boys’ and girls’ trajectories for expectancy, value and task demand variables from junior through to senior high school? Fourth, what causal sequencing among expectancy and value constructs can be discerned? These questions are addressed using longitudinal data from three cohorts in an overlapping cohort sequential design (11’s: 428, 436, 459). Parallel analyses are conducted for English to assess domain specificity of findings. These four major questions comprise the extensive quantitative survey phase of the study. Further questions comprise the intensive qualitative interview phase, namely: what factors are facilitative of, and detrimental to highability girls pursuing high levels of mathematics? How are their self-perceptions of talent derived? And how do students explain greater male participation in maths at school and in the workplace? Self—perceptions and values were identified as the most important factors related to gendered achievement-related choices and behaviours in maths and English, where participation in maths and English HSC course levels as well as intended maths- and English-related careers comprised choice outcomes, and performance and self-reported effort exerted comprised behaviour outcomes. Findings support research within the Expectancy-Value framework, indicating that students’ maths values are the strongest predictors of mathematics course enrolment in high school, while success expectations and competence beliefs most strongly predict mathematics achievement. In English, in contrast to maths, self—perceptions but not values predicted choice outcomes, while similarly to maths, self-perceptions predicted performance outcomes. Following identification of key predictors of maths and English achievement-related outcomes, gender differences favouring boys in maths and girls in English were identified across many of the self, task and value constructs assessed. Further, optimal grade levels for intervention were identified through inspection of when changes in boys’ and girls’ growth trajectories for key Expectancy-Value perceptions occurred through grades 7 to 11. This was achieved through an overlapping cohort sequential design, enabling an ‘accelerated’ longitudinal study spanning grades 7 to 11, as well as providing evidence of replicated effects across cohorts. Directions of relationships between Expectancy—Value self- perception and values constructs were also clarified through structural equation modelling techniques using longitudinal data. Directional paths for maths confirmed those proposed in the Expectancy-Value model for maths, with self-perceptions influencing values, whereas for English, reciprocal influences occurred between self-perceptions and values. The qualitative component of the study provided rich insights into the bases for high- achievinggirls’ disproportionately low talent perceptions, through comparing their responses with carefully chosen contrast groups. This group of girls is also arguably the group with whom we should be most interested, being the group for whom both ‘waste of talent’ and social justice arguments are most strong. The present study provides guidance as to how interventions may enhance self-perceptions related to maths, and suggests valuable insights as to how increasingly equal participation of males and females in maths may be achieved. Findings provide theoretical and measurement contributions for researchers within the Expectancy-Value framework, as well as implications to educators concerned with enhancing achievement-related choices and outcomes, particularly for girls in relation to maths