Supporting Data for "Personal Relevance and Interest Development in the Secondary School Math Class"

The thesis project focuses on "Personal Relevance and Interest Development in the Secondary School Math Class". The current dataset includes the data collected in Study 2, 3 and 4 in the thesis project. Study 2 developed and validated a measure assessing three types of personal relevance with varying degree of personal meaningfulness (personal association, personal usefulness, relevance as identification. The dataset for this study includes students’ three types of personal relevance collected at three time points using the newly-developed questionnaire (434 first-year middle school students). Study 3 investigated the relationships among the three types of personal relevance and students’ interest in middle school math classes. The dataset for Study 3 includes the participants’ self-reported three types of personal relevance, self-efficacy for math class, class interest and teacher-reported math grades (434 first-year middle school students). Study 4 implemented an intervention utilizing generative AI to foster students’ relevance as identification with the knowledge/skills taught in the math class and examined the impact of the intervention on promoting students’ interest in the math class. The dataset for Study 4 includes the participants’ self-reported relevance as identification with math, class interest, self-efficacy for math and teacher-reported math grades (218 high school students).