Host country education can be crucial for the social integration as well as labour market outcomes of refugees and asylum seekers. To meet the same admission criteria for studying at German higher education institutions (HEI) as other international student applicants, refugees and asylum seekers can attend pre-study programmes at preparatory…

This article examines achievement motivation in connection with the political knowledge of upper secondary level pupils at German vocational grammar schools. The influence of achievement motivation in civic courses has been scarcely researched so far. In the expectancy-value model, expectations of success are important determinants of action in…

Student dropout is a frequent phenomenon in higher education institutions that entails high costs for individuals, institutions, and society as a whole. Thus, it is crucial to identify protective factors regarding dropout in cases in which it could have been prevented. In line with Person-Environment Fit Theory, we assume that intrinsic motivation…

Gifted underachievers perform worse in school than would be expected based on their high intelligence. Possible causes for underachievement are low motivational dispositions (need for cognition) and metacognitive competences. This study tested the interplay of these variables longitudinally with gifted and non-gifted students from Germany…

Self-regulated learning can be conceptualized as the pursuit of learning goals by means of self-initiated control processes. Models of self-regulated learning postulate that goal-directed processes unfold within individuals from motivational states through volitional-control processes to goal achievement. Thus far, this hypothesis has mostly been…

Background: The control-value theory of achievement emotions postulates that it is possible to affect achievement emotions by decreasing or increasing control and value appraisals. This implies that changes in the latter should result in changes in the former. However, the assumption has been rarely tested. Aims: This study aimed at verifying…

The present study explores the self-regulated learning (SRL) research published in English or Turkish language journals included in the Web of Science database from the beginning to 2021 via bibliometric analysis. The 2197 articles that met the eligibility criteria were included in the study. The results reveal that the research on SRL has been…

Because of the high social relevance of an economics education, many countries now focus on the enhancement of economic competencies in schools. International results show strong deficits in basic economic knowledge, especially for students in upper secondary education, who usually enter higher education. Furthermore, it is not clear what effects…

This article examines the extent to which normative beliefs on acculturation constitute (a) individual resources and risk factors for adolescents facing developmental tasks and (b) institutional norms that define developmental milieus in secondary schools. To what extent do egalitarianism, multiculturalism, assimilationism, and segregationism help…

Despite the fact that grade retention is now seen as controversial in many quarters, it remains common practice in numerous countries. Previous research on the effects of grade retention on student development has, however, generated ambiguous results, particularly in terms of motivational outcomes. This ambiguity has been attributed in part to a…

From a constructivist perspective on learning, mistakes are seen as natural elements of learning processes. A supportive and constructive way of dealing with student mistakes has shown to affect students' individual motivation and learning performances in a favorable way. In classroom settings, however, making mistakes is not just a personal but…

Despite its increasing popularity and adoption across Europe, Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is not without its critics. It has been argued that CLIL programmes are highly selective, that is, the students possess more favourable learning prerequisites than their monolingually taught peers. The present study contributes to this…

It is now well known that adolescence is frequently marked by a decline in students' achievement motivation, which in turn is often associated with a decline in individual school self-concept. Less is known about the mediating role of socio-motivational support in the association between individual school self-concept and achievement motivation.…

Recent handbooks of giftedness or expertise propose a plethora of conceptions on the development of excellent performance but, to our knowledge, there are no comparative studies that provide empirical evidence of their validity to guide researchers and practitioners in their adoption of a particular conception. This study sought to close that gap…

Fostering foreign language proficiency is an important goal of university teaching. We identified German university students' (N = 1265) goal orientations developed during secondary school as predictors of attitudes toward receiving instruction in English at university. Mastery goal orientation was proposed to "directly" promote positive…