The relationship between goal orientation and the use of learning strategies and their effects on learning outcomes were investigated. The three goal orientations considered were: (1) task orientation, which involves learning for its own sake; (2) ego orientation, which involves a desire to perform better than others; and (3) work avoidance, which…

A major concern of science educators is the lack of talented females selecting science careers. In spite of attempts during the past few decades to create equality in all facets of life in the United States, many sexual stereotypes persist. The research presented here is designed to examine the relationship of sex to the relevant factors…

An extensive body of research indicates that men on the average achieve higher scores in mathematics than women. Despite this extensive research, conclusions about sex differences in mathematics achievement have suffered from various inadequacies in the use of measures of association among coursework experiences, sex, and other correlates of…

This investigation examines empirical support for the internal/external (I/E) frame of reference model which describes the relationships between verbal and math self-concepts, and between these academic self-concepts and verbal and math achievement. The empirical tests are based on all studies (n=6,010; ages 7 to 35 years) that have employed any…

Temperament and objective and subjective measures of academic competence were interrelated in order to test two alternative models: (1) a direct effects model stressing intraorganismic, noncontextually mediated links; and (2) a developmental contextual model emphasizing social interactional processes between students and teachers. Data from the…

A longitudinal study of political attitudes and behavior of high school students reveals varying results when two different methods of data analysis are applied. A sample of 293 students was questioned (during their sophomore year in 1974 and again in 1976 when they were seniors) about political orientation, number of social studies classes taken,…

Research on mutual-aid groups has begun to examine reasons for joining and outcomes, but few investigations have focused on the processes of group development or interaction. The applicability of a therapy-group development model to student mutual-aid groups was examined to determine the extent to which specified formal group structure and…

Longitudinal study examined effect of children's gender on tendencies of mothers to use specific antecedents in ascribing causal explanations for their children's sixth grade mathematics performance. Path analyses showed that, for both mothers of boys and mothers of girls, maternal perceptions of child performance were associated with…

Suggests that communication contributed to commitment to remain in a neighborhood or metropolitan community via a process of belief and attitude formation, but that attitudes were a better predictor of intention to stay in a neighborhood than they were of intention to remain in the metro area. (SD)

This study investigated the motivational and performance consequences of two features of task-mastery learning structures: retesting opportunities and criterion-referenced grading. College students were assigned either to a norm-referenced (competitive) or a criterion-referenced grading system, and to either a single-test or retest condition.…

Among high school seniors, (1) most of those who aspired to teach were White females; (2) teacher aspirants were less concerned with earning good incomes than those who chose other professions; (3) job security was not an important motivation for entering teaching; and (4) teacher aspirants were intellectually less able than their classmates.…

Used path analysis to examine relations between trauma, perceived parenting, resources, political activity, and adjustment in Palestinian 11- and 12-year olds. Found that the more trauma experienced, the more negative parenting the children experienced, the more political activity they showed, and the more they suffered from adjustment problems.…

Used path analysis to examine effects of spatial skill, math anxiety, and math self-confidence as mediators of gender differences in Mathematics Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT-M) in upper third of college-bound adolescents. Found that mental rotation and math self-confidence indirectly mediated the gender-SAT-M relationship. Most of the mediational…

The validity of Tinto's model of college withdrawal was investigated with 100 4-year public college women and 165 2-year private college women. Institutional commitment was most directly affected by social integration. This commitment was seen as pivotal to retention. (IAH)

Two studies involving 125 sixth graders and 28 fifth through seventh graders examined negative social reactions from the perspective of rejecting peers. The more children perceived atypical students to be responsible for idiosyncracies, the more anger and less sympathy they reported. Implications for improving social acceptance are discussed. (SLD)