A Cultural Explanation of Motivation-Achievement Paradox in Math

Although math motivation is positively associated with math achievement, the pattern reverses at the country level such that societies with higher motivational levels show lower achievement. This motivation-achievement paradox has puzzled researchers, and existing explanations have failed to fully account for the phenomenon. We advance and test a cultural explanation of the paradox using two large-scale studies. Both studies found that long-term orientation was negatively associated with country-level motivational factors but positively associated with national achievement (i.e., confounded the relationship between country-level motivation and achievement). When controlling for long-term orientation, the negative association between country-level motivation and achievement became nonsignificant. Our research highlights the importance of national culture, particularly long-term orientation, in shaping students’ motivational process and academic performance.