An emerging area of research on the diversification of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is that of queer and trans (QT) students who are interested in STEM education and disciplines. The purpose of our study was to identify differences in high school mathematics educational experiences by sexual orientation and gender…

Expectancy-value theory mostly focuses on how expectancy and value beliefs are associated with academic achievement. Both expectancy and value beliefs are multidimensional and can be further decomposed into general and specific factors. However, few studies have explored the associations of these general and specific factors with academic…

Do high school learners in Cape Town have realistic tertiary study plans? During 2015, 813 Grade 11 learners were surveyed with regard to their expectations for academic achievement and post-school plans. Learners attended average-performing, noor low-fee Cape Town high schools. Follow-up discussions were held with 10 learners, 2 teachers and 1…

This study aims at investigating the direct effects of three motivation factors, self-efficacy, task value, and mastery goal orientation, and a deep cognitive strategy, critical thinking skills on students' mathematical reasoning ability. Besides, the study focuses on the examination of the mediating effects of critical thinking skills on the…

Studies have documented widespread academic disengagement in middle and high school students. This disengagement has been tied to a myriad of negative outcomes, including failure to graduate from high school and transition into college and meaningful vocations. Supporting adolescents in cultivating a sense of beyond-the-self purpose is one factor…

The aim of the study was to investigate the relationships between certain educational strategies and students' personality traits, on the one hand, and students' academic performance, on the other, respectively between the latter and two types of outcomes (i.e. students' academic performance and intentions to drop out of high school). These…

The study aims to understand psychological processes relevant to learning argumentative writing in high school. Multi-group path analysis was used to explore whether self-efficacy mediates the relationship between writing anxiety and use of self-regulation across students with different goal orientation profiles. A cluster analysis identified…

We examined the moderating effects of mastery goals and academic contingency of self-worth (CSW-A) on how perfectionistic discrepancy associates with academic efficacy and satisfaction with life among gifted students in middle and high school. Participants in this study were 144 gifted students from 6th to 12th grade in a suburban Midwest U.S.…

In this study, the relationship between students' interest in engineering design activities and their expectancy for success in grades 9-12 was evaluated. The theoretical frameworks developed by Eccles and colleagues (i.e., expectancy value) and Butler and Cartier (i.e., what the students bring to contexts under a self-regulated learning…

This study examined the relationship between specific factors believed to influence career decision self-efficacy and math/science related goal intentions (proxy for engineering related goal intentions) among African American high school students. Minority students generally tend to be underrepresented in such careers, as indicated by the National…

The purpose of this study was to describe secondary teachers' formative assessment practices and to examine the relationship of these practices to student motivation. The sample included 3,242 students and 161 grade 6-12 teachers. Teachers and students completed self-report questionnaires that focused on both formative assessment and motivation…