Do Students Have the Drive to Succeed?

                     When students believe that investing effort in learning will make a difference, they scoresignificantly higher in mathematics.             The fact that large proportions of students in most countries consistently believe thatstudent achievement is mainly a product of hard work, rather than inherited intelligence,suggests that education and its social context can make a difference in instilling values thatfoster success in education.             Teachers’ use of cognitive-activation strategies, such as giving students problems that requirethem to think for an extended time, presenting problems for which there is no immediatelyobvious way of arriving at a solution, and helping students to learn from their mistakes,is associated with students’ drive.             Students whose teachers set clear goals for learning and offer feedback on their performancein mathematics also tend to report higher levels of perseverance and openness to problem solving.                