title: Developing a Study Orientation Questionnaire in Mathematics for primary school students.
abstract: The Study Orientation Questionnaire in Mathematics (Primary) is being developed as a diagnostic measure for South African teachers and counsellors to help primary school students improve their orientation towards the study of mathematics. In this study, participants were primary school students in the North-West Province of South Africa. During the standardisation in 2007, 1,013 students (538 boys: M age = 12.61; SD = 1.53; 555 girls: M age = 11.98; SD = 1.35; 10 missing values) were assessed. Factor analysis yielded three factors. Analysis also showed satisfactory reliability coefficients and item-factor correlations. Step-wise linear regression indicated that three factors (Mathematics anxiety, Study attitude in mathematics, and Study habits in mathematics) contributed significantly (R2 = .194) to predicting achievement in mathematics as measured by the Basic Mathematics Questionnaire (Primary).
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Education, University of Pretoria, South Africa. kobus.maree@up.ac.za
authors.forename: Jacobus G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Maree
authors.forename: Martha S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Van der Walt
authors.forename: Suria M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Ellis
mesh_terms: D000124:Achievement; D000293:Adolescent; D001007:Anxiety / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D001290:Attitude; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004521:Educational Measurement; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011594:Psychometrics; D011932:Reading; D012574:Schools; D013019:South Africa; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods