This paper draws on data from a quantitative study of upper secondary students' general mathematical self-efficacy, anxiety towards mathematics, and their relationship to achievement in mathematics. The main objective of this article is to discuss the type of information that may be lost if potential problems of validity and extreme multicollinearity in exploratory factor analysis would be solved by only removing variables without doing a profound analysis. We also describe a method that treats Likert items in the questionnaire as ordinal variables that may represent the underlying continuous variable. Our study shows, for example, that removal of problematic variables without a profound analysis leads to a loss of significant information about test anxiety. Our qualitative analysis of problematic variables also led to an unexpected finding regarding the relationship between general mathematical self-efficacy and motivational values in mathematics.

This article reports on an investigation among 156 upper secondary students who self-evaluated their general mathematics self-efficacy and anxiety beliefs. After minimizing the influence of extreme multicollinearity, an exploratory factor analysis revealed a clear four-factor pattern. Two of the factors were interpreted as self-concept-like factors; one representing student’s overall confidence in mathematics labeled mathematics self-concept, and the other labeled generalized mathematics self-efficacy, concerned with student’s future-oriented perception of their competence in mathematics. The other two factors are students’ anxiety when they give wrong answers in mathematics class (in-class anxiety), and students’ anxiety and stress when they must do mathematics homework (assignment anxiety). Although no gender differences were found in previous mathematics achievement, the analyses indicated that all latent factors differed between genders. However, further analyses of logistic mixed models with all latent factors and prior mathematics achievement as predictors revealed that reported in-class anxiety was the primary discriminating factor between male and female students. 

This article discusses computational thinking and programming in mathematics teaching and aims to shed light on different interpretations of what programming entails. The literature review revealed that there are mainly two ways of approaching programming in an educational context either by a narrow interpretation or a broader interpretation of programming. These different interpretations of programming are manifested in different ways in mathematics teaching. The narrow interpretation is manifested in an activity that focuses on learning to write code on a computer, while the broader interpretation of programming is displayed in activities with a focus on learning how solve problems in such a way it can be executed by a computer or by a human. Also, this article explores an appropriate programming activity within the context of mathematics education in Sweden. 

This study explores how generalized mathematics self-efficacy and mathematics self-concept influence students' engagement across behavioral, emotional, cognitive, and disengagement dimensions. Conducted during an advanced mathematics course in Sweden, the study assessed students' self-beliefs in mathematics at both the beginning and the end of a course segment where they solved mathematically complex and contextually realistic problems. Path analysis revealed that generalized mathematics self-efficacy is a stronger predictor of engagement than gender, prior achievement, mathematics self-concept, or mathematics anxiety. Mathematics anxiety was measured through students' reported stress about not being able to complete assignments at home (referred to as assignment anxiety) and their reported concern about giving incorrect answers in class (referred to as in-class anxiety). Notably, self-concept had minimal impact on agentic engagement, with its effect mediated by generalized mathematics self-efficacy and in-class anxiety. Prior achievement influenced cognitive engagement primarily through generalized mathematics self-efficacy, while assignment anxiety played a key role in cognitive disengagement.