Self-handicapping is a maladaptive strategy that students employ to protect their self-image when they fear or anticipate academic failure. Instead of increasing their effort, students may harm their chances of success by procrastinating, strategically withdrawing effort, or engaging in destructive behaviors like drug abuse, so that potential…

In this article, the author describes the "Learning Disposition Questionnaire" (LDQ) a tool designed to address more of the "integrity and identity" of college students as learners. Rather than using students' documented skills as a lens by which to assume or interpret learning dispositions, a direct way to evaluate and assess…

Despite the increase in their college enrollment, nontraditional students in U.S. postsecondary institutions are less likely to stay in college until they earn their degree. What could explain nontraditional student high attrition rates and overall success beyond what their demographic characteristics reveal? The purpose of this study was to…

Introduction: In the present study we examined the differences in volitional strategy use (i.e., self-efficacy enhancement, negative-based incentives, and stress-reducing actions) and their relation to cognitive self-regulated learning strategy use (i.e., rehearsal, elaboration, organization, and critical thinking) in a sample of university…

This was the first study to integrate Rosenbaum's concept of learned resourcefulness with Dweck's implicit theories of intelligence in predicting university students' academic self-control behaviour and year-end grades. Rosenbaum highlights the prominent role that learned resourcefulness skills play in promoting mastery responses and goal…

Students exhibiting failure syndrome approach assignments with low expectations of success and tend to give up at early signs of difficulty. This Digest delineates the nature of failure syndrome, suggests strategies for coping with failure syndrome students, and discusses how teachers can help. Some students, especially in the early grades, show…