The Relationship Between Friend Network And Mathematics Academic Achievement Of Rural Junior Middle School Students In The Context Of Class: The Mediating Effect Of Learning Engagement

Academic achievement is the core index of school education and student development,and achieving good academic achievement has always been the main goal of junior middle school students' learning life.However,due to the limitation of growing environment and lack of educational resources,the academic achievement level of junior middle school students in rural areas is generally low,especially mathematics.It is an important issue for the development of basic education to explore the influencing factors of rural junior middle school students' mathematics academic achievement and its improvement path.Rural junior middle schools are mostly in boarding system.Peer is an important person for junior middle school students to get along with.Peer relationship and peer evaluation will affect the academic achievement of junior middle school students.Therefore,based on the background theory of social and cultural development,this study explores the influence of class friend network characteristics on rural junior middle school students' math academic achievement,and the mediating role of math learning engagement in the relationship between them.At the same time,mathematics academic achievement is evaluated from objective and subjective perspectives(self-evaluation and others evaluation)to promote the richness of its measurement and form the mutual examination and verification of results.This study selects 1031 grade 7,8 and 9 students from a rural middle school in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region as the research object.By using social network analysis method and questionnaire survey method,this study explores the structural characteristics of class friend network,mathematical reputation network and mathematical help network of rural junior middle school students.Meanwhile,the mediating effect of mathematics learning engagement on the characteristics of friend network(friend in-degree and friend out-degree),subjective mathematics academic achievement(self-rated mathematics academic level and mathematics academic reputation)and objective mathematics academic achievement were investigated.The results are as follows:(1)There are gender differences in the number of class friends,academic reputation and help-seeking in mathematics of rural junior middle school students,and the academic reputation and help-seeking in mathematics of girls are significantly higher than that of boys.There are differences in the number of friends in grade 9,grade7 and Grade 8.(2)Rural junior middle school students' math learning engagement is above the medium level.There are gender and grade differences in mathematics learning engagement.The level of mathematics learning engagement of girls is significantly higher than that of boys.There were significant grade differences in cognitive engagement,affective engagement and social engagement,while there was no grade difference in behavioral engagement.(3)The objective mathematics achievement of rural junior middle school students is below the middle level.There is gender difference in objective mathematics academic achievement.Girls' academic reputation and objective mathematics achievement are significantly higher than boys',while there is no gender difference in subjective mathematics academic achievement.(4)There are significant correlations between the degree of friend in-degree/outdegree and the dimensions of mathematics learning engagement,self-assessment of mathematics achievement,mathematics academic reputation and objective mathematics achievement.Mathematics learning engagement played a partial mediating role in the relationship between friend in-degree/out-degree and subjective and objective mathematics academic achievement,while mathematics learning engagement played a complete mediating role in the relationship between friend indegree/out-degree and subjective and objective mathematics academic achievement.In other words,high class friend acceptance can directly promote math academic achievement,and can influence math academic achievement by promoting math learning engagement.The activity of making friends in class affects the academic achievement of mathematics by promoting the engagement of mathematics learning.