The Relationship between Students' Achievement and their Self-perception of Competence and Rigour of Mathematics and Science: A cross-national analysis

Abstract

This study applies theory linking students' self-perceived competence with academic achievement, using data from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). Within-country data generally show a positive relationship between student achievement and self-perceived competence in mathematics and science. However, when one examines this relationship between countries, the opposite relationship occurs, i.e. countries with higher student self-evaluations usually performed poorly on the TIMSS tests and vice versa. Similarly, countries with a high proportion of students perceiving the subjects as being easy performed poorly on the TIMSS tests and vice versa. This pattern exists for both mathematics and science at grades 3, 4, 7 and 8. The authors suggest that this pattern may reflect low academic expectations and standards in low performing countries and high academic expectations and standards in high performing countries.