Cross-cultural Differences in Math Persistence

Abstract

The ability to persist when encountering challenges is critical to math learning. However, little research has investigated cross-cultural differences in behavioral persistence during math problem-solving. Furthermore, factors and mechanisms that can help explain these potential differences are poorly investigated. The present research documented the existence of cross-cultural variability in persistence and investigated the role of two sets of motivational factors –academic mindsets and social goals - in explaining persistence. Participants were college students from top universities in Massachusetts, U.S. (N=157) and Beijing, China (N=101). The study included two sessions. In the first session, participants completed questionnaires on academic mindsets (including beliefs about the malleability of general intelligence, math ability, and effort), self-construal, endorsement and internalization of social goals. In the second session, participants completed two math tasks, during which their persistence was assessed with two measures: Task Preference (level of preference for continuing on a challenging math task), and Persistence Time (amount of time spent on a challenging math problem). Results showed that Chinese participants were more persistent, as measured by Persistence Time but not Task Preference. Further, participants’ academic math-specific mindsets predicted their persistence in math problem solving. Students from both countries showed similar effect of beliefs about math ability: participants who were more growth-minded (i.e., viewed this ability as more malleable) were more likely to persist than other students after receiving negative feedback on prior performance. However, effort beliefs predicted persistence in a culturally-specific way: among Chinese participants, those who were less growth-minded were more persistent. In addition to mindsets, self-construal predicted math persistence. For students from both countries, interdependent self-construal predicted higher persistence. Moreover, endorsement and internalization of some social goals (affiliation and responsibility) interacted in predicting persistence for Chinese participants. Overall, the results of the present study suggest that academic mindsets and social goals play important roles in math problem-solving persistence, but these roles vary by culture. These findings help deepen our understanding of behavioral persistence as well as cross-cultural differences in math problem-solving.