| This study examined the relationships among a selected set of self-related cognitions and affects and the decision to elect to participate in a first optional high school mathematics course. An additive expectancy/value model of behavior was postulated to account for mathematics participation. This model specified that only expectancy (probability of success) and value (perceived utility of mathematics and liking for mathematics) directly "cause" mathematics participation. All constructs were derived from a self-report measure administered to students shortly after they had made a decision to pre-enroll (or not) in a first optional high school mathematics course.;Based on initial data analyses and a review of the existing literature, an initial structural model was fit to the data for the sample as a whole. With slight modifications, this model fit the data reasonably well for both sexes in both weighted and unweighted maximum likelihood structural analyses. There was some support for an expectancy/value model of mathematics participation with two major exceptions. First, future aspirations (e.g., career and educational aspirations) seemed to have a strong direct causal effect on mathematics participation, while expectancy had little direct effect on mathematics participation. It appears as though the latter result may have occurred because of the very specific definition afforded "expectancy" in this study; namely, probability of success in one's next mathematics course/confidence in one's ability to learn mathematics. It is suggested that future research specify expectancy of success in relation to mathematics participation in terms of more long-range objectives--for example, the probability that additional mathematics participation might help one achieve future educational goals.;Finally, results indicated that, for females, affective components of attitudes toward mathematics (i.e., liking for mathematics) may have a stronger direct causal effect on mathematics participation than do belief components of attitudes toward mathematics (i.e., perceived utility of mathematics for one's future). Results also indicated that these findings may be reversed for males, with beliefs about mathematics having a stronger direct effect on mathematics participation than affect toward mathematics.;The subjects in the study were 644 ninth and tenth grade students from six high schools. The sample was 51.2 percent female and 48.8 percent male. Students appeared to be relatively average in terms of socioeconomic indicators. |
