Perceived returns to mathematics and student achievement: the South African case
Date
2023
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Abstract
This study investigates the relationship between students’ perceived returns to mathematics – the future benefits a student believes they will obtain from studying mathematics – and mathematics achievement in South Africa. The study expands the scarce literature on the role of non-cognitive skills (and specifically extrinsic motivation) in education in South Africa. The 2019 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) South Africa dataset was used to perform Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), Instrumental Variable (IV), and Fixed Effects (FE) estimations of the model. The study finds that perceived returns to mathematics has a positive and statistically significant relationship with mathematics achievement. Further, it was found that the positive relationship that intrinsic motivation has with mathematics achievement is increased when perceived returns to mathematics is high, but that students with low intrinsic motivation for mathematics do not perform significantly differently when their perceived returns to mathematics is higher. This provides important insight into the interaction between different types of cognitive skills. Additionally, high perceived returns to mathematics had a large and significant positive relationship with mathematics achievement for students in rural schools, and the positive relationship between perceived returns to mathematics and mathematics achievement shrunk as one progressed to a more urban school location. This shows that perceived returns to mathematics matter more for students in challenging circumstances, but, importantly, the study finds that students with high perceived returns to mathematics in rural schools still perform worse than students with low perceived returns to mathematics in urban schools. This is an important finding in the South African context where gross inequalities in education persist: non-cognitive skills are important for educational achievement, but more needs to be done to improve the functionality of poor schools in South Africa
Description
A Research Report submitted in partial fulfilment of the Degree of Master of Commerce (Applied Development Economics) in the School of Economics and Finance, University of the Witwatersrand
Keywords
Mathematics, South Africa, Students achievment
Citation
Gamieldien, Mohamed Faarez. (2023). Perceived returns to mathematics and student achievement: the South African case [Master’s dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg]. WireDSpace. https://hdl.handle.net/10539/38799