Mathematics interest is highly relevant for students' academical and emotional development in the domain of mathematics. Thus, it appears alarming that students' mathematics interest decreases during the course of secondary school. Teacher self-efficacy is a central facet of teacher motivation and is assumed to be highly relevant for student…

While school self-concept is an important facilitator of a student's school engagement, previous studies rarely investigated whether it may also explain the change in students' school engagement during secondary school. Moreover, as social relations play an increasingly important role in adolescence, the current research distinguishes between the…

Since the turn of the century, an increasing number of low-stakes assessments (i.e., assessments without direct consequences for the test-takers) are being used to evaluate the quality of educational systems. Internationally, research has shown that low-stakes test results can be biased due to students' low test-taking motivation and that…

Drawing on expectancy-value theory, the present study examined the unique contributions of the four major value beliefs and self-concept on achievement, self-reported effort, and teacher-rated behavioral engagement in mathematics. In particular, we examined the multiplicative effects of self-concept and task values on educational outcomes using…

The impact of two types of written feedback (process-oriented, grade-oriented) on changes in mathematics achievement, interest and self-evaluation was compared -- with a particular focus on the mediating role of feedback's perceived usefulness. Participants, 146 ninth graders (aged 14 to 17?years), were assigned to either a process-oriented or a…

We conducted an experimental study with 192 ninth graders in which we investigated a connection between performance and students' interest and enjoyment using task-unspecific and task-specific questionnaires. Students were randomly assigned to experimental group 1 or to experimental group 2. In group 1, they were asked about their affective…