The relations between motivation and mathematics achievement: a cross-cultural study of Asia-Pacific jurisdictions using TIMSS 2023 data

Abstract This study employs latent profile analysis of TIMSS 2023 data to examine secondary school students’ motivation toward mathematics (i.e., confidence, interest, and value) in Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand. The analysis is guided by three research questions: (1) identifying the characteristics of motivation profiles in the Asia-Pacific jurisdictions; (2) exploring their associations with mathematics achievement and gender; and (3) comparing these findings across the Asia-Pacific jurisdictions. The findings revealed both consistent and inconsistent motivation profiles. The value-oriented inconsistent profile was prevalent in the Asian jurisdictions, whereas it was observed among a small proportion of students in the Western-influenced Pacific jurisdictions. Motivation generally showed positive associations with mathematics performance. More specifically, confidence was more closely linked to achievement in the Western-influenced Pacific jurisdictions; however, in the Asian jurisdictions, value and interest appeared to compensate for low confidence in predicting mathematics scores. Gender distribution also differed across cultural contexts: boys in the Western-influenced Pacific regions were overrepresented in adaptive motivation profiles, while in the Asian jurisdictions, this overrepresentation extended to profiles with maladaptive characteristics. These divergent effects may be attributed to philosophical differences between collectivism and individualism, which tend to characterize Asian and Western-influenced Pacific societies, respectively. The study provides evidence that assumptions about achievement motivation, derived from Western studies, are not universally applicable.