Relationships Between Math Performance and Human Judgments of Motivational Constructs in an Online Math Tutoring System

Abstract

This paper explores how early grade school students’ math performance relates to human ratings of students’ affect, identity, and social awareness based on the content of messages to an online tutoring system avatar. There is an expanding body of research which investigates connections between these features and success in mathematics. This study used principle component analysis to identify four components related to motivational constructs. These components were examined using correlations with mathematics performance at three difficulty levels. Data from 572 students were examined, with results indicating little to no links between human judgments of motivational constructs and math performance. These findings have implications for how motivational constructs in math are evaluated and how they can predict mathematics performance.