This study set out to examine parents' perceptions of the malleability of their child's academic competencies. A total of 97 mothers and fathers were asked to rate their child's potential for improving her/his competencies in mathematics and Finnish, using both intrapersonal and interpersonal criteria in their ratings. These two criteria were…

The study examined children's and their parents' and teachers' perceptions of the malleability of the child's academic competencies. A total of 103 third- and sixth-graders and their parents and teachers were asked to rate how much the child could improve her/his competencies in mathematics and Finnish. The participants were asked to use…

Purpose: The present study set out to examine the grounds on which pupils explain their possibilities of improving their competencies in mathematics and Finnish. Sample: A total of 103 girls and boys of the third grade (age nine years) and the sixth grade (age 12 years), children of academically and vocationally educated parents, were interviewed.…

Purpose: This study set out to investigate pupils' evaluations of their academic abilities in different school subjects and their ratings of their potential for improving their performance in those school subjects. Sample: Twenty-eight pupils from the third grade (approximately age nine) and 30 pupils from the sixth grade (approximately age 12) in…

This study set out to examine children's notions of the malleability of their academic competencies and the relations of these notions to the child's grade-level and gender and the parent's educational level. In interviews of a total of 103 boys and girls of the third and the sixth grade, children of academically and vocationally educated parents…