Table 3.
Standardized factor loadings of student survey items for achievement goal, self-efficacy, and task value structure
| Student survey items | λ | R 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Mastery goal structure (5 items, α = .81) | ||
| Learning a lot of new things is what is important to me in math. | 0.73 | 0.46 |
| One of my main goals in math is to improve my skills. | 0.73 | 0.47 |
| My main goal in math is to learn as much as I can. | 0.76 | 0.42 |
| Really understanding my math work is important to me. | 0.73 | 0.47 |
| Learning new skills in math is one of my goals. | 0.83 | 0.32 |
| Performance-approach goal structure (5 items, α = .83) | ||
| In math, doing better than other students is important to me. | 0.64 | 0.59 |
| My goal in math is to look smarter than other students. | 0.75 | 0.43 |
| One of my goals is to show others that math is easy for me. | 0.70 | 0.51 |
| It’s important to me that others think I am good at doing math. | 0.68 | 0.54 |
| My goal in math is to do better than other students. | 0.79 | 0.38 |
| Performance-avoid goal structure (5 items, α = .79) | ||
| My goal is to keep others from thinking that I’m not smart in math. | 0.60 | 0.64 |
| It’s important to me that I don’t look stupid in math class. | 0.64 | 0.59 |
| An important reason I do my math work is so that I don’t embarrass myself. |
0.58 | 0.67 |
| I do my math work so that my teacher doesn’t think I know less than others. |
0.67 | 0.55 |
| My goal in math is to avoid looking like I can’t do my work. | 0.71 | 0.50 |
| Academic self-efficacy for math (4 items, α = .85) | ||
| How certain are you that you can learn everything taught in math? | 0.65 | 0.58 |
| How sure are you that you can do even the most difficult homework problems in math? |
0.76 | 0.42 |
| How confident are you that you can do all the work in math class, if you don’t give up? |
0.72 | 0.48 |
| How confident are you that you can do even the hardest work in your math class? |
0.75 | 0.44 |
| Task value (4 items, α = .85) | ||
| Interest Value (6 items, α = .87) | ||
| How much do you like doing math? | 0.88 | 0.23 |
| I like math. | 0.86 | 0.26 |
| Math is exciting to me. | 0.92 | 0.15 |
| I am fascinated by math. | 0.94 | 0.13 |
| I enjoy doing math. | 0.88 | 0.23 |
| I enjoy the subject of math. | 0.88 | 0.23 |
| Utility Value (4 items, α = .79) | ||
| How useful is learning math for what you want to do after you graduate and go to work? |
0.86 | 0.26 |
| Math will be useful for me later in life. | 0.81 | 0.35 |
| Math concepts are valuable because they will help me in the future. |
0.56 | 0.69 |
| Being good at math will be important when I get a job or go to college. |
0.64 | 0.59 |
| Attainment Value (6 items, α = .84) | ||
| Being someone who is good at math is important to me. | 0.67 | 0.55 |
| I feel that, to me, being good at solving problem which involve math or reasoning mathematically is (not at all to very important). |
0.63 | 0.60 |
| 0.72 | 0.48 | |
| Being good at math is an important part of who I am. | 0.76 | 0.43 |
| It is important for me to be someone who is good at solving problems that involve math. |
0.78 | 0.39 |
| It is important to be to be a person who reasons mathematically. | 0.68 | 0.53 |
| Thinking mathematically is an important part of who I am. | ||
| Cost Value (2 items, α = .72) | ||
| I have to give up a lot to do well in math. | 0.82 | 0.32 |
| Success in math requires that I give up other activities I enjoy. | 0.67 | 0.55 |
Note. The range for scale reliability is reported for all four waves of motivation surveys included in the analyses. All standardized factor loadings are significant at p < .001. Results come from the full sample of 4,229 students. Chi-square = 3,883, df = 601, p < .001; CFI = 0.95; TLI = 0.95; RMSEA = 0.04; SRMR = .04.
Source: Midgley et al. (2000).