Ming Lyu, Baoqian Yang, Jiabo Li, Yixiao Zhang, Qianqian Wan, Liguo Zhai, Zhuolin Yang
Baseline analyses confirmed that the Treatment and Control groups were equivalent before the intervention across overall mathematics achievement and related mathematics subdomains. After controlling for pretest performance, students in the Treatment group achieved significantly higher posttest mathematics scores than students in the Control group, with an adjusted mean advantage of approximately 5 points. Gain-score analyses supported these findings, showing greater mathematics growth and reduced outcome variability among Treatment students. Subdomain analyses indicated significant Treatment advantages in retrieval, procedural processing, conceptual application, data interpretation, and mathematics items of low, medium, and high complexity. Within the Treatment group, implementation fidelity was positively associated with mathematics achievement gains, suggesting that stronger enactment of the intervention corresponded to larger student gains. Exploratory demographic sensitivity analyses suggested that the intervention effect was broadly consistent across gender, race/ethnicity, parental education, lunch status, and living arrangement, although these findings should be interpreted cautiously because of the pilot design and unequal subgroup sizes. Growth mindset, measured only within the Treatment group, was moderately associated with mathematics gains, indicating that motivational beliefs may help explain individual differences in responsiveness to cognitively structured instruction.
INTRODUCTION: In the context of middle school students' English learning as a foreign language (EFL), perceived English proficiency and ability mindset are two important factors influencing learning motivation. However, the mechanism of their interaction remains lacking in systematic empirical verification.
METHODS: This study, using a sample of 2,664 junior high school students from Northeast China, conducted a questionnaire survey using Perceived English Proficiency scales, ability mindset scales, and English learning motivation scales. A structural equation model was constructed to examine the mediating effect of ability mindset between Perceived English Proficiency and learning motivation, and the Bootstrap method was used to test the significance of the indirect effect.
RESULTS: The results showed: (1) Perceived English Proficiency shows a significant positive direct association with English learning motivation; (2) Ability mindset exhibits a partial mediating role as a statistical relationship between the two, and the indirect effect accounts for 8.7% of the total effect.
DISCUSSION: This study provides new empirical evidence for the statistical pathway of 'Perceived English Proficiency → ability mindset → learning motivation' in the EFL junior high school population, thereby contributing to the theory of second language motivation from the perspective of positive psychology and also offering potential directions for middle school English teachers to support students' learning motivation through assessment feedback and growth mindset interventions.