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The aim of this study is to examine secondary school students' desire to pursue a career in science and mathematics in 2011 and 2015, taking into account gender differences, and to examine how variables related to students' socioeconomic status, motivation and performance predict the desire of female and male students to pursue a career in science and mathematics. The number of books, study environment at home and parents' educational levels were analyzed as SES variables. While motivational variables were students' self-efficacy and task value beliefs, performance related variables were their achievement and engagement. The data of the eighth-grade students from Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011 and 2015 were analyzed. To investigate the year differences of girls' and boys' career aspirations in science and mathematics, Chi-Square test was performed. In addition, logistic regression analysis was conducted to investigate the relation between students' SES, motivation, performance and career aspirations for 2011 and 2015 data separately. The results have indicated that students' motivation was the strongest and the most common predictor of career aspirations in science and mathematics for boys and girls.

This study aimed to investigate how well gender, socioeconomic status of family, and socio-cultural influences (perceived parents' achievement goals, and perceived teachers' achievement goals) predict middle school students' task value beliefs in science. Background Characteristics Survey, Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire, Perceived Parent Goal Emphases Scale and Perceived Teacher Goal Emphases Scale were administered to 977 middle school students in Turkey which may be viewed as a country possessing characteristics of both individualist and collectivist cultures. Consistent with the findings in individualistic cultures, results showed that middle school students who think that learning new things, improving skills in science are emphasized by their parents and science teachers tend to perceive science tasks as useful, interesting or enjoyable.

Introducción. Esta investigación tiene por objeto explorar el efecto de la adopción de metas de aproximación de los estudiantes, tanto de enfoque de maestría, enfoque de rendimiento y de evitación del rendimiento, en sus creencias motivacionales y uso de la estrategia de afrontamiento en las clases de ciencias desde una perspectiva de objetivos múltiples. Las creencias motivacionales de los estudiantes fueron examinadas en términos de autoeficacia y creencias de valor de tarea mientras que su uso de la estrategia de afrontamiento fue examinado en términos de afrontamiento positivo, proyectivo y de negación y no afrontamiento.Método. La muestra de este estudio consiste en 317 estudiantes de séptimo grado. Se usó para evaluar la autoeficacia y el valor de la tarea de los estudiantes un Cuestionario de Estrategias Motivadas para el Aprendizaje. Además, un Cuestionario de objetivos de logro e inventario de afrontamiento académico fueron utilizados en el presente estudio para evaluar las creencias motivacionales de los estudiantes y las estrategias de afrontamiento.Resultados. El análisis de conglomerados sugirió cuatro grupos de metas de logro: objetivos orientados a la maestría (enfoque de alto dominio, enfoque de bajo rendimiento y objetivos de evitación), objetivos orientados al rendimiento (enfoque y evitación de alto rendimiento, objetivos de aproximación de dominio moderado), objetivos orientados al enfoque (enfoque de alto dominio y alto rendimiento y menos objetivos para evitar el rendimiento) y altos objetivos orientados múltiples (alto dominio, enfoque de alto rendimiento y objetivos de evitación de alto rendimiento).Discusión y conclusión. De acuerdo con los resultados, estudiantes con objetivos orientados al enfoque y altos objetivos orientados múltiples tienen más probabilidades de poseer creencias motivacionales adaptativos y usan estrategias de afrontamiento positivas.

This study examined the reciprocal relationship between students’ perceptions of science learning environment, measured through promoting choice, interaction and mutual respect, and teacher feedback, and students’ achievement goals of mastery-approach and performance-approach goals. A total of 407 sixth and eighth grade students participated in the study. Canonical analysis showed that perceived learning environment variables and approach goal orientations were reciprocally and positively related. According to the results, all the dimensions of learning environment perceptions were related to students’ approach goals. For example, students who perceive right to share the control in tasks in science classroom, tend to adopt approach goals