Elementary Students' Self-Concept and Value Towards Reading and Math

Prior research has documented a general decline in children's learning value and self-concept (i.e., expectation for success), beginning in the first years of school. Students who demonstrated patterns of low academic value and low academic self-concept often tend to perform poorly in school (Gans, Kenny, & Ghany, 2003). In the present thesis work, the author further investigated children's self-concept (i.e., expectation for success) and task-values by asking students to rate themselves in math and reading, compared to the others in their class. Student ratings were then compared with teacher report to determine if student overestimation predicts his or her self-concept and value in both reading and math. This is a quantitative study, based on a sample (n = 173) of students within four counties in the southeastern United States. The subsequent quantitative data analysis was conducted by utilizing correlational analyses, regression analyses, and path analyses.