Background: Real-world problems are important in math instruction, but they do not necessarily trigger students' task motivation. Personalizing real-world problems by (1) matching problems to students' shared living environment (context personalization) and (2) asking students to pose their own problems (active personalization) might be two…

The level of engagement of students in schooling has long been associated with the type of educational outcomes achieved. This relationship is very apparent during early adolescence. It is during this developmental period that young people navigate the transition between primary and secondary school and may disengage from schooling. The Imagined…

Eye-movement technology has been often used to examine reading processes, but research has seldom examined the relationship between the reading process and comprehension performance, and whether the relationships are similar or different across grades. To investigate this, we conducted a 3-year longitudinal study starting at grade 4, with 175…

While it is well established that positive peer relationships lead to positive outcomes, little is known about the mediating role of school motivation on the association between perceived peer support and school achievement among middle grades students. Even less is known about the effect of gender on this mediation. The current study examined…

This study examined the reciprocal dynamics of teacher autonomy support with student motivation and engagement during late elementary and early middle school. A total of 861 students in grades 5-7 reported on three components of teacher autonomy support (choice, relevance, and respect), as well as their own engagement and self-system processes…

The primary objective of this study is to explore the interrelation between motivation, self-efficacy, and behavioral engagement in primary school mathematics learning. This study also examines the mediating role of self-efficacy in the relationship between motivation and behavioral engagement. The research involved 660 fifth and sixth grade…

Emerging evidence attests to the need to intervene in young students' science motivation and achievement before their science motivation starts to dwindle. Heeding this call, we implemented a science utility value intervention for fifth and sixth graders in 23 classrooms (N = 550). Through five intervention sessions that consisted of diverse…

Motivation in students can have a strong effect on student engagement and overall student success. Due to the impact of COVID-19, students have been less motivated and have fallen farther behind which increases the need to better motivate and engage students within the classroom. This quasi-experimental study which incorporated a pre- and…

Digital technology has broadened educational opportunities in science, positioning gamification as a pivotal tool. However, its full potential in enhancing science education has not been thoroughly explored. Addressing this research gap, this study delves into the less examined aspects of gamification within science education. Employing a…

Understanding motivational beliefs such as expectancy and value that shape students' persistence and decision to pursue a STEM career, obtaining valid and reliable measures for these dimensions, and developing strategies using this data are critically important to ensure students' persistence in the STEM pipeline. Therefore, this study aims to…

Student motivation and engagement have been complex issues in basic mathematics education. Based on the theory of Motivation and Engagement Wheel, this study examined the relationships among student motivation, engagement, and mathematics achievement. A sample of 1,538 Chinese primary school students participated in the survey, and motivation and…

Purpose: To test a structural equations model that analyzes the effects from satisfaction and frustration of the basic psychological needs on motivation types and the same effects on engagement and disaffection in physical education class, and to validate invariance among gender groups. Method: The participants were 1,470 fifth- and sixth-grade…

The outcomes of studies on the effectiveness of special education (SE) remain unclear. There are only a few studies on the effects of SE that have used advanced methodology to minimise the influence of potential selection bias. This study examined the plausible effects of SE on students' affective and motivational outcomes using a…

Students' intrinsic motivation to read, which is relevant to all forms of learning, tends to decline throughout secondary school. Based on self-determination theory (SDT), this study examines whether this downward trend is slowed when students perceive greater autonomy support in the classroom. We used large-scale panel data from the NEPS…

To examine developmental processes, intervention effects, or both, longitudinal studies often aim to include measurement intervals that are equally spaced for all participants. In reality, however, this goal is hardly ever met. Although different approaches have been proposed to deal with this issue, few studies have investigated the potential…