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The role of cognitive and non-cognitive factors in mathematics achievement: The importance of the quality of the student-teacher relationship in middle school

There is increasing evidence that several factors, including both cognitive and non-cognitive ones, play an important role in mathematics achievement. Relatively little is known about how socio-emotional features and the quality of the student-teacher relationship correlate with mathematics achievem...

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Autores principales: Semeraro, Cristina, Giofrè, David, Coppola, Gabrielle, Lucangeli, Daniela, Cassibba, Rosalinda
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7170247/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32310988
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0231381
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author Semeraro, Cristina
Giofrè, David
Coppola, Gabrielle
Lucangeli, Daniela
Cassibba, Rosalinda
author_facet Semeraro, Cristina
Giofrè, David
Coppola, Gabrielle
Lucangeli, Daniela
Cassibba, Rosalinda
author_sort Semeraro, Cristina
collection PubMed
description There is increasing evidence that several factors, including both cognitive and non-cognitive ones, play an important role in mathematics achievement. Relatively little is known about how socio-emotional features and the quality of the student-teacher relationship correlate with mathematics achievement among adolescents in transition to middle school. The aim of the present study is to examine the role of cognitive factors (general cognitive abilities), non-cognitive factors (math anxiety and self-esteem), and the quality of the student-teacher relationship on mathematics achievement. A large sample of Italian sixth graders was evaluated upon entering middle school. The results showed that general cognitive ability was the best predictor of mathematics achievement. As regards non-cognitive factors, the level of math anxiety was effective in predicting mathematics achievement, after controlling for other measures including self-esteem and the quality of the student-teacher relationship. In particular, we found that the quality of the student-teacher relationship had an indirect influence on mathematics achievement through the mediation of math anxiety. Our findings seem to indicate that the quality of the student-teacher relationship may be related to mathematics achievement, through its effects on math anxiety. This may have important implications for practitioners and educators, as we can suggest that interventions devoted to improving the quality of the student-teacher relationship may play a positive role in both preventing math anxiety and promoting mathematics learning.
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spelling pubmed-71702472020-04-23 The role of cognitive and non-cognitive factors in mathematics achievement: The importance of the quality of the student-teacher relationship in middle school Semeraro, Cristina Giofrè, David Coppola, Gabrielle Lucangeli, Daniela Cassibba, Rosalinda PLoS One Research Article There is increasing evidence that several factors, including both cognitive and non-cognitive ones, play an important role in mathematics achievement. Relatively little is known about how socio-emotional features and the quality of the student-teacher relationship correlate with mathematics achievement among adolescents in transition to middle school. The aim of the present study is to examine the role of cognitive factors (general cognitive abilities), non-cognitive factors (math anxiety and self-esteem), and the quality of the student-teacher relationship on mathematics achievement. A large sample of Italian sixth graders was evaluated upon entering middle school. The results showed that general cognitive ability was the best predictor of mathematics achievement. As regards non-cognitive factors, the level of math anxiety was effective in predicting mathematics achievement, after controlling for other measures including self-esteem and the quality of the student-teacher relationship. In particular, we found that the quality of the student-teacher relationship had an indirect influence on mathematics achievement through the mediation of math anxiety. Our findings seem to indicate that the quality of the student-teacher relationship may be related to mathematics achievement, through its effects on math anxiety. This may have important implications for practitioners and educators, as we can suggest that interventions devoted to improving the quality of the student-teacher relationship may play a positive role in both preventing math anxiety and promoting mathematics learning. Public Library of Science 2020-04-20 /pmc/articles/PMC7170247/ /pubmed/32310988 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0231381 Text en © 2020 Semeraro et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Semeraro, Cristina
Giofrè, David
Coppola, Gabrielle
Lucangeli, Daniela
Cassibba, Rosalinda
The role of cognitive and non-cognitive factors in mathematics achievement: The importance of the quality of the student-teacher relationship in middle school
title The role of cognitive and non-cognitive factors in mathematics achievement: The importance of the quality of the student-teacher relationship in middle school
title_full The role of cognitive and non-cognitive factors in mathematics achievement: The importance of the quality of the student-teacher relationship in middle school
title_fullStr The role of cognitive and non-cognitive factors in mathematics achievement: The importance of the quality of the student-teacher relationship in middle school
title_full_unstemmed The role of cognitive and non-cognitive factors in mathematics achievement: The importance of the quality of the student-teacher relationship in middle school
title_short The role of cognitive and non-cognitive factors in mathematics achievement: The importance of the quality of the student-teacher relationship in middle school
title_sort role of cognitive and non-cognitive factors in mathematics achievement: the importance of the quality of the student-teacher relationship in middle school
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7170247/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32310988
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0231381
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