A Comparative Analysis of the Effect of Students Affective Characteristics on Their Science Performance between Countries Based on PISA 2015 Data

Abstract

Based on the results of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2015, this study aimed to determine the extent to which affective characteristics such as epistemic beliefs, motivation and selfefficacy predicted students' performance in science and whether this differed between countries that exhibited different levels of achievement. In accordance with the purpose of the study, two countries were randomly selected from each of the three achievement levels defined by PISA (above average, average, and below average) and all the students that took the test from the selected countries were included in the analysis. A simple linear regression analysis was performed using the IDB Analyzer program, which facilitated the analysis of the layered data collected in this study. According to the results, it was determined that the students' affective characteristics predicted their science performance by 30% regardless of the achievement level.

The Relationship Between Attitude Toward Science and Academic Achievement in Science: A Three-Level Meta-Analysis

“…Studies about science attitude and science learning involved participants from different geographical regions (e.g., USA, Turkey, and China). In addition, previous research indicated that there were regional differences in science achievement (Martin et al, 2012 ; Bati et al, 2019 ). For example, research on international students' science achievement showed that there were differences across countries in TIMSS 2011 at the fourth grade, with some countries (e.g., Finland, Korea, Singapore) showing considerably higher level of achievement than some others (Martin et al, 2012 ).…”

“…For example, research on international students' science achievement showed that there were differences across countries in TIMSS 2011 at the fourth grade, with some countries (e.g., Finland, Korea, Singapore) showing considerably higher level of achievement than some others (Martin et al, 2012 ). Furthermore, Bati et al ( 2019 ) investigated the degree to which affective characteristics could predict students' science performance based on the results from PISA 2015, and suggested that science self-efficacy of students could significantly predict science achievement in samples from multiple countries. Thus, the strength of the association between science attitude and science learning achievement could vary across countries/regions.…”

Language teacher practices predicting students’ reading self-efficacy: Jordanian students’ participation in PISA 2018

“…The findings suggested that affective factors have a significant positive or negative impact on the science achievement of 15-year-old students, and that affective factors were found to be predictors of science achievement; however, they were not good predictors due to their low magnitude. Moreover, Bati et al (2019) sought to identify the extent to which affective characteristics, cognitive beliefs, motivation to learn science, self-efficacy, and a sense of belonging to school predict the performance of students in science at three levels of the countries (Korea, Japan, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, and Hungary) participating in PISA 2015. The results of the regression analysis indicated that affective characteristics (interest, attitude, motivation), cognitive beliefs, and self-efficacy explained 27% of the expected performance in science regardless of the level of achievement in science in the six countries as a whole (Korea 29%, Japan 24%, Spain 29%, Sweden 25%, Turkey 27%, Hungary 28%).…”