This study aims to investigate middle school students’ engagement in science from an international perspective. In the light of the expectancy–value theory of achievement-related behaviors, students’ gender, socio-economic status, selfefficacy, and task value (utility value and intrinsic value) were handled as predictors of science engagement. The data were gathered from Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (2015). The participants of this study were eighth-grade middle school students from 30 different countries. A logistic regression analysis was conducted to investigate how the combination of mentioned variables predicts students’ science engagement. According to the results, students’ task value beliefs have the highest contribution to the model. Besides, other findings were discussed in consideration of differences among countries.
Cite this article as: Kahraman, N. (2021). What makes students engage in science: Is it universal?. HAYEF: Journal of Education, 18(3): 499-516.