Do students have the drive to succeed?

Abstract

When students believe that investing effort in learning will make a difference, they score significantly higher in mathematics. The fact that large proportions of students in most countries consistently believe that student achievement is mainly a product of hard work, rather than inherited intelligence, suggests that education and its social context can make a difference in instilling values that foster success in education. Teachers’ use of cognitive-activation strategies, such as giving students problems that require them to think for an extended time, presenting problems for which there is no immediately obvious way of arriving at a solution, and helping students to learn from their mistakes, is associated with students’ drive. Students whose teachers set clear goals for learning and offer feedback on their performance in mathematics also tend to report higher levels of perseverance and openness to problem solving.