Achievement goals have been key concepts for describing what motivates individuals in educational contexts. While achievement goals have often merely been conceptualized in terms of aspired end-states (aims of goal striving), contemporary research has proposed a more holistic perspective synthesizing these aims alongside autonomous versus…

Research on effective teaching and learning shows that when students set and monitor their own learning goals, it significantly narrows achievement gaps. While teacher-written objectives are important for clarity, when these objectives are re-written as personal statements, they evolve from what a teacher needs to teach to what students want to…

Background: According to Dweck's mindset theory, implicit beliefs (a.k.a. mindset) have an organizing function, bringing together mindset, achievement goals and effort beliefs in a broader meaning system. Two commonly described meaning systems are a growth-mindset meaning system with mastery goals and positive effort beliefs, and a fixed-mindset…

While gender-based achievement gaps have been widely explored in academic motivation research, gender-related variables such as sexual orientation and other-gender similarity radically shift understandings of these disparities. Recent research has shown that gay men have a notable bachelor's degree attainment advantage over heterosexual men while…

Earning Open Badges instead of regular grades and credits can be a motivating factor for high-performing students in terms of attending classes and completing assignments in extracurricular courses, but to what extent? And for what student profiles? To tackle these questions, we conducted a quantitative study with high-performing students. Each…

The study explores the influence of motivation on college students' achievement, emphasizing the differential roles of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. 147 college students, aged eighteen to forty-two, completed a survey consisting of the Academic Motivation Scale and the Academic Success Inventory for College Students and provided their grade…

In higher education, motivational factors are considered one of "the strongest predictors of academic performance" (Honike et al., 2020, p. 1). A meta-analysis of face-to-face (f2f) courses (Richardson et al., 2012) supports these claims, finding a strong correlation between performance self-efficacy and academic performance (r = 0.59),…

Background: Achievement goal theory is a popular motivational theory within education and psychology, with several review papers summarizing the extensive work done in these fields. Although reviews exist in these specific fields, none exists within science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. This is a considerable gap in…

Background: Achievement goal theory is a popular motivational theory within education and psychology, with several review papers summarizing the extensive work done in these fields. Although reviews exist in these specific fields, none exists within science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. This is a considerable gap in…

Early adolescents entering middle school are at a pivotal developmental phase as they become less dependent on parents/guardians and seek greater autonomy while encountering a complexity of social demands requiring them to regulate their emotions, thoughts, and behaviors to achieve academic and social success. Yet, students who receive services…

Human flourishing is often defined in terms of a collection of positive human factors. However, many people around the world are living in conditions that block human flourishing and find themselves powerless to change those circumstances. I argue that it is more useful to examine instead the idea of living well. Drawing upon Yu Hua's novel…

Background: Student transition to university can be a challenging time. Research suggests that providing space for student reflection and goal setting may facilitate this period of transition. Objective: I describe the "Postcard to my Graduating Self Project," in which psychology students were invited to write postcards to their future…

The main aim of this study is to examine the mediating effect of psychological capital (PsyCap) on the relationship between proactive personality and academic performance among undergraduates. A quantitative approach with a cross-sectional study was employed. The sample consisted of 390 undergraduate students from Malaysian private universities.…

Goal setting and grade loss aversion have individually been found to be effective motivators for student performance. We combine these two strategies to investigate, in a university setting, the effectiveness of grade endowment within a goal-setting framework. Our participants set grade goals which some must earn the traditional way, thus framed…

The problem that was addressed through this study is that online undergraduate adult students, 25 years of age or older, do not persist to graduation at Caring University, a pseudonym for an online university. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the perceptions of online adult undergraduate alumni about what motivated them to…