Middle School Students’ Engagement in Mathematics and Learning Approaches: Structural Equation Modelling

This study aims to investigate the effects of middle school students’ learning approaches and their attitudes towards mathematics on their engagement in mathematics course. The research cross-sectional survey design was used in the quantitative research model. The research was conducted with the participation of 5th-8th graders who attended schools located in a city in the Central Anatolian region of Turkey. Thus, 383 students in total, 209 of whom were female and 174 of whom were male, were included in the research. Three different data collection instruments were used in the study: student engagement in mathematics scale, approaches to learning mathematics scale, and scale for assessing attitudes towards mathematics in secondary education. The data were analyzed on structural equation modelling. As a result, significant correlations were found between participants’ engagement in mathematics course and their learning approaches while no significant differences were found between their engagement in mathematics and their attitudes towards the course.