The 15 participants (eight girls, seven boys) attended a co-educational, comprehensive
Catholic high school in a metropolitan area of a major city in Australia. All students were
in Year 7 (first year of high school) and placed within either the high or middle ability
mathematics class in their grade. Students were purposively selected from different ability
classes in consultation with teachers and based on results of a mathematics test in order to
gain various levels of achievement and potentially different levels of mathematical self belief.
While it would have been ideal to include participants from the lowest ability class,
no students from this class consented to participate.