Can students be more engaged and confident? A multiple membership multilevel analysis of science engagement and confidence and their effects on science achievement in East Asia

East Asian students consistently ranked at the top in international large-scale assessments. However, they consistently ranked the lowest in science engagement and confidence. We adopted the three-level multiple membership multilevel modeling to analyze TIMSS 2015 data to address research questions of “Can students be more engaged and confident?” and their effects on science achievement. Results revealed that gender, family socioeconomic status, and sense of school belonging were significantly associated with science engagement and confidence. Japanese students who taught by science teachers who majored in science or in science education or both tended to more engage in science learning. Moreover, science engagement and confidence mattered to science achievement. They uniquely contributed to science performance with adjusting for student, teacher, and school characteristics. School composition by student socioeconomic backgrounds and safe and orderly school climate were salient moderators of relationships between science engagement/confidence and achievement. Implications were discussed for East Asian schools.