Assessing the Relationship of Self-regulation, Motivation and Anxiety on Mathematics Achievement of Elementary School Children in South -Western Nigeria

Abstract

This is a quantitative study investigating the relationship between self – regulated learning, motivation, anxiety and achievement in mathematics. A total of 2,283 elementary pupil, 1,373 (60% female) and 913 (40% male) from selected fifth-sixth year elementary mathematics classrooms in South-western Nigeria participated in the study. Three instruments – a version of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ), an adaptation of the Test Anxiety Inventory revised for mathematics (TAI-R-M), and Measure of Academic Performance – were used. Data was analysed using Multiple Regression Correlations. Data analyses revealed that significant contributions are made by self–regulation, motivation and anxiety on mathematics score of the participants. The results obtained show that mathematics achievement had significant correlations with all the three independent variables (i.e., self-efficacy, motivation, and test anxiety). The results also revealed that mathematics achievement of the participants correlated positively with the three predictor variables. The results of this study also indicate that self –regulation was the most potent contributor to the predictor followed by test anxiety and motivation in that order. The findings underlie the importance of motivation and anxiety for students and how these constructs interact to facilitate self-regulation over the course of developing expertise in a domain, such as mathematics.

Keywords: Self-regulation, Motivation, Anxiety, Mathematics achievement, Elementary School Children