THE EFFECT OF MATHEMATICS SELF-CONCEPT ON GIRLS AND BOYS MATHEMATICALACHIEVEMENT

Norwegian elementary schoolboys showed significantly higher mathematic s self-concept than girls. Boys also had a significantly higher mathem atical achievement score than girls. However, controlling for mathemat ics self-concept produced several interesting results. First, there wa s no significant effect of gender on overall mathematical achievement. Second,,although the gender difference in achievement favouring boys increased with increasing task difficulty, no significant effects of g ender were found in subsamples of difficult tasks. Finally, a signific ant effect of gender favouring girls appeared in subsamples of easy ta sks and in routinizing well-defined procedural tasks. These results in dicate that mathematics self-concept is an important variable accounti ng for differences in elementary schoolgirls' and boys' mathematical a chievement.