The big‐fish‐little‐pond effect on mathematics self‐concept: Evidence from the United Arab Emirates

Abstract

This study examined the big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE; Marsh, 1987) on mathematics self-concept of 7404 adolescents (female ¼ 3767 [51%], male ¼ 3637 [49%]; M age ¼ 15.85 years, SD ¼ 0.28) from 456 schools in the United Arab Emirates, one of the Arab states of the Persian Gulf. The results of multilevel regression analyses indicated good support for the BFLPE's theoretical predictions: the effect of individual student mathematics achievement on individual student mathematics self-concept was positive and statistically significant, whereas the effect of school-average mathematics achievement on individual student mathematics self-concept was negative and statistically significant. Moreover, the interaction between school-average mathematics achievement and individual student mathematics achievement was small and non-significant. Implications of the findings for policy and practice are briefly discussed.

The Big-Fish-Little-Pond Effect on Academic Self-Concept: A Meta-Analysis

“…Evidence accumulated for several decades supported the BFLPE (Marsh and Hau, 2003 ; Huguet et al, 2009 ; Chiu, 2012 ; Becker and Neumann, 2016 ; Areepattamannil et al, 2017 ). The BFLPE was proved to be intercultural and stable: Marsh and Hau ( 2003 ) found that the effect of school-average achievement on student ASC is negative in 26 countries ( = −0.20, SD = 0.08), and it exhibits across all student ability levels.…”

“…The second is the comparison target. In BFLPE researches, students' comparison target was assumed to be a generalized other (Marsh et al, 2008b ), which was operationalized by either class-average achievement (e.g., Huguet et al, 2009 ; Marsh et al, 2009 ; Preckel and Brull, 2010 ; Thijs et al, 2010 ) or school-average achievement (e.g., Seaton et al, 2009 ; Chiu, 2012 ; Marsh, 2016 ; Areepattamannil et al, 2017 ), and the results varied accordingly. Areepattamannil et al ( 2017 ) assessed the school effect and got the BFLPE at −0.43, while Preckel and Brull ( 2010 ) took the class-average achievement as comparison target and got a weaker effect (−0.19).…”

Self-concept and the academic achievement of students from collectivist countries: A scoping review of empirical findings

“…With regard to subject-specific self-concept and achievement, the outcomes from eight studies among high school students revealed positive relationships between matched self-concept and academic achievement in the United Arab Emirates (Areepattamannil et al, 2017), Pakistan (Awan et al, 2011), Azerbaijan (Karimova & Csapo, 2020), Taiwan (Wang & Liou, 2017), Korea (Bong et al, 2012), and China (Chao et al, 2019; McInerney et al, 2012; Xu, 2018). In the only longitudinal study of this relationship, Xu (2018) found that, over the course of an academic year, self-concept in mathematics positively predicted later achievement in mathematic among high school students in China.…”