Comportamiento de los indicadores del mercado

The findings reported in this dissertation support as well as refute some of the theoretical perspectives adopted. In terms of construct validation, there are impli- cations for current theories concerning the development and structural composi- tion of mathematics-related affect. The implications also extend to some of the methodological challenges in comparative studies of mathematics-related affect. A number of studies have documented the effect of unreliable psychometric prop- erties in survey instruments and of the relationship between the measures (Ba- gozzi, 1993; Marsh et al., 2010). However, until now all these studies have been done in the West and in some Asian countries. There has been no research linking the psychometric properties of these measures to students’ performance in the Af- rican context, and minimal attention has been paid to the effect of negatively worded items on construct validity and reliability.

The results discussed in this dissertation may have a broad influence on re- searchers using both negatively and positively worded items in surveys in general, and specifically in those focusing on mathematics-related affect. The findings confirm the effect of negatively worded items on the validity and reliability of the measurement instrument. Furthermore, most psychometric properties of mathe- matics-related constructs have thus far been dependent on Cronbach’s alpha as the best measure of construct reliability. The studies comprising this dissertation sup- port the theoretical analogy that, under certain conditions such as when there are correlated errors among the items in a scale, the values for the alpha coefficient exceed the values for composite reliability (Bentler, 2009; Green & Yang, 2009; Peterson & Kim, 2013; Raykov, 2001). The results also show a clear relationship between negatively worded items and student achievement, and indicate that neg- atively worded items are a “cognitive nuisance” for low achieving students cross- culturally, and as such are worth studying in their own right.

The empirical part of this work confirms that there are substantial cross-cul- tural differences in the structure of affect in the African context, and in its rela- tionship with achievement. The findings also imply that it would be easy to de- velop a more reliable measure of student performance than the measure of math- ematics-related affect used in cross-cultural research. However, the strong facto- rial invariance (Cheung & Rensvold, 2002; Cheung & Rensvold, 1999; Meredith, 1993; Millsap & Olivera-Aguilar, 2012) indicates that the constructs are funda- mentally similar in all cultural settings (i.e., comparable), hence the hypotheses posited in this dissertation can be meaningfully tested.

Hannula (2001, 2015a, 2015b) succeeded in describing the structure of math- ematics-related affect in detail in his comprehensive literature review, and pro- duced empirical evidence supporting an affect cluster (Roesken et al., 2011). The present study was successful in further supporting this approach empirically.

could therefore be argued that it is also necessary to consider cultural variation in investigations of children’s views on mathematics, as well as the methodological approaches involved in the theoretical settings. As Clarke (2013, p. 1863) put it: “the interpretation and application of international comparative research is criti- cally contingent on researchers’ capacity to address those “dilemmas” pertinent to their particular design”.

These differences have been found in multiple cultural contexts, across a wide age range and among various researchers (Kaldo & Hannula, 2012; Tuohilampi et al., 2014), implying that mathematics-related measures are culture-specific. Given the cultural variations in the VOM construct, it would be important to de- termine which features are most salient to children and how they relate to mathe- matics performance. This could help to shed new light on how mathematics-re- lated affect influences individual differences on the cultural level. Studies III and IV addressed that question to some extent.

The findings also support as well as refute some of the theoretical perspectives on motivational belief and achievement adopted here. They give new insights into the relationship between, as well as the predictive nature of mathematics-related affect, achievement, and students’ background variables. Overall, the results chal- lenge as well as uphold the implicit assumption that students’ affective disposition impacts performance, and vice versa. The implications extend to current theories on the relationship between affect and achievement, including the causal relation- ship. For instance, in demonstrating the presence of relationships linking motiva- tional beliefs, the long-term educational aspirations and socioeconomic back- ground of students, teacher and parental involvement, and achievement, the results give strong support for modern expectancy value theory and extend the substantial evidence that attests to its effect on students’ achievement-related behaviors.

The results also contribute theoretically to the literature on mathematics self- concept regarding the reciprocal relationship between affect and achievement in indicating that these predictions are culture-specific. Another finding reported here is that, whereas most research in Western cultures indicates that intrinsic mo- tivation is more strongly related to performance than extrinsic motivation, the op- posite was the case: extrinsic motivation related more strongly to performance. The implication is thus that the association of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation with performance is culture-specific. In terms of gender, the results are consistent with gender stereotyping (e.g., higher mathematics self-concepts and values among males) as described in cross-sectional and longitudinal studies (e.g., Jacobs et al., 2002; Marsh et al., 2006; Nagy et al., 2010; Watt, 2004). With regard to gender differences in mathematics achievement, it was found that females some- times outperformed males, males sometimes outperformed females, or there were no differences, depending on the culture or country.

Although the finding of a relationship between affect and achievement is cer- tainly not unique in the literature, it is the first of its kind involving structural

equation modeling accounting for measurement errors and bias in large-scale as- sessment in an African context. The evidence of a reciprocal relationship between affect and achievement in mathematics is a good indication of the “struggle” for supremacy between affect and achievement, as indicated in the various educa- tional systems. The TIMSS data set (e.g., mathematics-related motivational belief constructs) was used in these studies as a traditional testing ground for new and evolving theoretical models in the research on mathematics-related affect, as well as a major focus of critical debate on the relationship among these constructs.

All in all, the study makes a significant contribution to indigenous research that integrates cross-cultural perspectives and is crucial to the establishment of more useful and universal theories.