In the context of competitive classroom settings and relativistic assessment schedules, some groups of students may particularly benefit from an emphasis on personal progress and personal growth approaches to their academic development. Building on recent promising results from general samples of high school students (undifferentiated by…

Studies examining students' achievement goals, cognitive engagement strategies and performance have found that achievement goals tend to predict classes of cognitive strategy use which predict performance on measures of learning. These studies have led to deeper theoretical understanding, but their reliance on self-report data limit the…

We investigated: (a) the associations of implicit theories and epistemological beliefs and their effects on the academic motivation and achievement of students in Grade 6 science and (b) the mean differences of implicit theories, epistemological beliefs, and academic motivation and achievement as a function of gender and race/ethnicity (N=508).…

Classroom instruction may be affected by school contexts that are increasingly performance-driven because of legislative demands. Interpreting this as a need to investigate the relationships between school context and classroom practice, this study took a "top-down" approach by examining contextual elements of school goal structure and teacher…

We investigated motivation for taking low stakes tests. Based on expectancy-value theory, we expected that the effect of student perceptions of three task values (interest, usefulness, and importance) on low stakes test performance would be mediated by the student's reported effort. We hypothesized that all three task value components would play a…

This study explored why mastery-based achievement goals often are unrelated to class grades despite promoting deep learning strategies and high course interest. We hypothesized that mastery-oriented students jeopardize their exam performance by allowing their individual interests to dictate their study efforts such that they neglect boring topics…

Using a multi-theory approach, the current study was designed to identify gender differences in the psychological mechanisms by which urban adolescents' motivation in physical education transfers into their leisure-time activities. The theoretical frameworks of Self-Determination Theory and the Theory of Planned Behavior were integrated to…

This paper examines stability and change during the elementary-to-middle school transition, focusing on adolescents' experiences of home--school dissonance because of real or perceived differences between home/self and values within the school context. Relationships were hypothesized between exacerbation and amelioration of dissonance, middle…

Cognitive processing and language awareness in relation to reading were studied. Language awareness involved understanding of phonological representation, ambiguities, and incongruities. Second and fourth graders were administered seven "simultaneous-successive" tasks. Results showed a much greater direct effect from language awareness…

Path analysis was used to test predictions of a model explaining the impact of students' perceptions of classroom structures (tasks, autonomy support and mastery and evaluation) on their self-efficacy, perceptions of the instrumentality of class work, and their achievement goals in a particular classroom setting. Additionally, the impact of…

Six hundred twenty-six subjects from the University of Arizona participated in an investigation designed to examine congruence of a math domain hierarchy validated psychometrically and validated instructionally. Three studies revealed congruence between hierarchies validated psychometrically and instructionally. Generalization and transfer were…

Path analytic techniques examined relations between children's subjective school outcomes and measures of their family and school learning environments. A home interview assessed parents' orientations to education and children's perceptions of schools were obtained. Children's perceptions have links with school-related outcomes even when family…

A personality construct, preference for course difficulty, was related to test anxiety in a sample of 62 graduate students. Path analysis indicated that trait anxiety directly affects test anxiety and that preference for course difficulty affects test anxiety. The preference for course structure construct was validated. (LMO)

This experiment explored the mediating functions of attributional and self-efficacy variables on achievement outcomes for skill training treatments offered in conjunction with attributional feedback. Children who were identified as learned helpless and deficient in division skills received training on division operations either through modeling…

The relationships among intelligence, field dependence, sex role, and mathematics background and achievement were examined in a study involving 287 college students. Number of math courses taken and intelligence were the best predictors of math achievement, although other variables also influenced achievement. (TJH)