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Background: There is growing interest in studying the co‐occurrence of multiple achievement goals and how different goal profiles relate to educational outcomes. Further, contextual aspects of the classroom have been known to influence the goals students pursue but existing studies remain confined within certain traditions and confounded by methods not well suited for studying classroom climate effects. Aims: This study sought to investigate achievement goal profiles in mathematics and their associations with background covariates (i.e., gender, prior achievement) and correlates at the student‐level (i.e., achievement, self‐efficacy, anxiety) and class‐level (instructional quality dimensions of classroom management, supportive climate, instructional clarity and cognitive activation). Sample: Participants were 3836 Secondary‐3 (Grade‐9) students from 118 mathematics classes in Singapore. Methods: Achievement goal profiles and their relationships with covariates and student‐level correlates were examined with updated procedures of latent profile analysis. Subsequently, multilevel mixture analysis assessed the associations of student‐level goal profiles and different class‐level dimensions of instructional quality. Results: Four profiles were identified: Average‐All, Low‐All, High‐All and High‐Approach. These profiles differed across covariates and correlates, with High‐Approach students associated with positive outcomes and High‐All students with math anxiety. Cognitive activation and instructional clarity predicted stronger membership in High‐Approach profile than Average‐All and Low‐All, but not High‐All. Conclusion: Certain goal profile patterns were consistent with past studies and supported the fundamental separation of approach and avoidance goals. Less differentiating profiles were associated with undesirable educational outcomes. Instructional quality can be considered as an alternative framework for examining classroom climate effects of achievement goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Students' academic performance and learning experiences are crucial in school education, yet their relationships with instructional characteristics remain an open question. Aims: The present study examined how cognitive activation and teacher support were associated with students' academic emotions and achievement in math classrooms via domain‐ and task‐specific self‐efficacy. Sample: In total, 5388 eighth graders from central China participated in this study. Methods: Cognitive activation, teacher support, math‐related enjoyment and anxiety, and domain‐ and task‐specific self‐efficacy were measured with self‐reported student questionnaires. The math achievement was measured with a standardized test. Results: Our findings showed that the two instructional characteristics were positively related to math achievement and enjoyment but negatively related to math anxiety, with the mediation effects of task‐ and domain‐specific self‐efficacy. In detail, cognitive activation had a stronger relationship with math anxiety through task‐specific self‐efficacy than domain‐specific self‐efficacy. Whereas, cognitive activation had a greater linkage with math enjoyment through domain‐specific self‐efficacy than task‐specific self‐efficacy. In addition, teacher support had a greater association with learning outcomes through domain‐specific self‐efficacy than task‐specific self‐efficacy. Conclusions: The relational mechanism of cognitive activation and teacher support on math achievement and academic emotions were differentially mediated by task‐ and domain‐specific self‐efficacy in Chinese math classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Self‐efficacy, or the beliefs learners hold about what they can do, develops largely from how learners perceive and interpret four main sources of information: mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, social persuasions and physiological and affective states. Although the relationship between these sources and self‐efficacy is well‐established, less is known about the factors that may influence how early adolescent learners perceive and interpret information from these sources. Aims: The purpose of this study was to investigate how the predisposition of perfectionism might predict how learners perceive efficacy‐relevant information in the domain of math. Methods: Using a correlational design, this study considered whether perfectionism was associated with how middle school students (N = 1683) perceive information from the four hypothesized sources of self‐efficacy. Participants completed a paper‐based survey at two time points. Perfectionism was measured at Time 1. Self‐efficacy and its sources were measured at Time 2. Structural equation modelling techniques were used to examine the relationship between factors. Results and Conclusions: Students who held themselves to high standards (i.e., greater self‐oriented perfectionism) reported higher levels of mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, social messages and self‐efficacy. Conversely, students who felt external pressure to be perfect (i.e., socially prescribed perfectionism) reported lower levels of mastery experiences, vicarious experiences and self‐efficacy, as well as higher levels of negative physiological and affective states. The relationship between perfectionism and self‐efficacy was partially mediated by students' perceptions of mastery. This study extends the current literature on the sources of math self‐efficacy in early adolescence by showing how a predisposition like perfectionism is associated with how adolescent learners perceive and interpret efficacy‐relevant information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Self‐efficacy beliefs have well established theoretical and empirical linkages to persistence and achievement. Budding theoretical and recent empirical research has worked to connect self‐efficacy to interest. Building on research in these areas, burgeoning research has begun to examine the relative role of intercept and slope of self‐efficacy for these learning outcomes. Aims: This study builds on and extends previous research by testing the longitudinal implications of self‐efficacy beliefs' latent growth for knowledge and interest gains. Methods: These aims were addressed by testing a fully forward, latent SEM, which included a latent growth curve (self‐efficacy beliefs' for a course of study) framed by pre–post standardized tests and measures of individual interest in the domain. This research was undertaken in the motivationally challenging context of a compulsory foreign language university programme in western Japan. First‐ and second‐year students from 10 faculties participated (n =1,184) across a single semester, resulting in seven separate data points. Result: The SEM confirms the important longitudinal roles of self‐efficacy beliefs' intercept within achievement, and both intercept and slope within future interest. Findings support and extend recent latent curve analysis with similar variables, lending further support to the critical role played by self‐efficacy beliefs' within the development not only of knowledge but also of individual interest as a learning outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Fear appeals are discourses commonly used by teachers to motivate students especially when academic outcomes are paramount. Fear appeals have been associated with better and worse academic performance by the student recipients, with some evidence that fear appeals are detrimental for students who are anxious and have lower self‐efficacy. Little is known about the factors that drive teachers' use of fear appeals beyond a desire to increase motivation to excel. Aims: This study examined the relationship between the use of fear appeals, psychological distress, and self‐efficacy in both teachers and students. Sample: Participants were 377 students (81% female, age range 15 to 18, M = 16.68, SD = 0.49) and 96 teachers (73% female, Mean years teaching = 18.04, SD = 12.39). Methods: Participants completed surveys mid‐way through the first school term of their final year of high school. Student surveys examined student anxiety, depression, stress, self‐efficacy, and experience of teacher fear appeals. Teacher surveys examined teacher anxiety, depression, stress, emotional burnout, self‐efficacy, years of teaching, and use of fear appeals. Results: Teachers use of fear appeals was associated with student distress which was heightened for students with lower academic self‐efficacy. Similarly, teachers' use of fear appeals was associated with higher anxiety and lower self‐efficacy in teachers themselves. Conclusions: Therefore, the use and consequence of fear appeals is strongly linked to both student and teacher self‐efficacy and distress. Given the detrimental impacts of fear appeals on academic performance in vulnerable students, more research is needed on the consequences of fear appeals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The self‐concept of children has an impact on later behavioural development and psychopathology; therefore, evidence of the accurate measurement of self‐concept is important. Harter and Pike's (1984, Child Development, 55, 1969) commonly used measure of self‐concept, the Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance for Children, has demonstrated varying evidence of its construct validity and reliability, particularly with preschool‐ or kindergarten‐aged participants. Aim: To examine the measurement properties of the Acceptance and Competence measures, and to substantiate the measures' adequacy within the latter participant age range. Sample: One hundred and ninety‐seven preschool or kindergarten‐aged children (M = 5.40 years, SD = 0.30) provided data as part of the Animal Fun study over three measurement periods. Methods: The study conducted a pair of Rasch analyses on the Acceptance and Competence measures described prior, with adherence to the assumptions of univariate measurement, item fit, item invariance, and response category adequacy examined as part of these analyses. Results: While the Acceptance measure demonstrated adequate reliability outside of some potentially misfitting items, the study identified several limitations for the Competence measure, including potential gender‐based and verbal IQ‐based response biases. Conclusions: Practitioners and research applications of these subscales may benefit from the response recoding recommendations provided in this study for the Acceptance measure, as they improved the measure's properties. The study provides potential solutions to item adequacy concerns, and avenues for future research, involving these measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Transition Year (TY) is a quasi‐gap year offered midway through post‐primary education in Ireland. TY is intended to provide a low‐stakes environment to promote maturity and social skills, and to prepare students for adult life. Previous interview‐based research has found that TY is seen as a positive experience by many students and teachers. However, no study has sought to quantify the extent to which TY participation may be associated with socioemotional development. Aims: To gather baseline data before TY and then examine differences in socioemotional outcomes over a 2‐year period (three waves of data collection) between students who went on to take part in TY and those who did not. Sample: A total of 1,563 Grade 9 students ‎(47% female, mean age = 15.4 years) in 20 schools were randomly sampled to provide a nationally representative sample. Methods: Outcome measures were selected to reflect (1) the intended aims of TY and (2) outcomes consistently identified through qualitative research as being associated with TY. These include student–teacher relations, self‐reliance, subjective age, school satisfaction, and social self‐efficacy. Latent growth curve models were used to examine differences in students' development over time, controlling for initial (baseline) status and background covariates. Results: TY participants reported significantly higher increases in subjective age and (for boys) self‐reliance over three waves than non‐participants. However, expected differences were not observed for other measures. Conclusions: This is the first study to report longitudinal quantitative analyses of socioemotional outcomes in TY. The results highlight a tension between broadly positive qualitative reports of TY outcomes and the limited quantitative evidence, to date, of same. Some directions for future research are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The cross‐lagged panel (regression) model (CLPM) is the usual framework of choice to test the longitudinal reciprocal effects between self‐concept and achievement. Criticisms of the CLPM are that causal paths are over‐estimated as they fail to discriminate between‐ and within‐person variation. The random‐intercept cross‐lagged panel model (RI‐CLPM) is one alternative that extends the CLPM by partialling out between‐person variance. Aims: We compare analyses from a CLPM and a RI‐CLPM which examine the reciprocal relationships between self‐concept, self‐efficacy, and achievement and determine the extent CLPM estimates are inflated by between‐person variance. Sample(s): Participants (n = 314) were first‐year undergraduate psychology students recruited as part of the STudent Engagement with Education and Learning (STEEL) project. Methods: Participants completed measures of self‐efficacy and self‐concept prior to completing fortnightly quiz assessments. Results: Cross‐Lagged Panel (regression) Model estimates are likely over‐estimated in comparison with RI‐CLPM estimates. Cross‐Lagged Panel (regression) Model analyses identified a reciprocal effects relationship between self‐concept and achievement, confirming established literature. In RI‐CLPM analyses, these effects were attenuated and a skill development association between achievement and self‐concept was supported. A reciprocal relationship between self‐efficacy and achievement was supported. Better model fit was reported for the RI‐CLPM analyses. Conclusions: Prior findings relating to the reciprocal effects of self‐concept and achievement need to be reconsidered. Whilst such a relationship was supported in a CLPM analysis in this study, within an RI‐CLPM framework, only achievement predicted self‐concept. However, in both CLPM and RI‐CLPM models a reciprocal effects model of self‐efficacy and achievement was supported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Work‐related learning is particularly important at the start of graduates' careers. Preparing students for work‐related learning is a chief aim of higher education, demonstrating its relevance when investigating the transition to work. Aim: This study aimed to investigate the role of personal factors for work‐related learning during the transition from higher education to work. This study took a longitudinal and person‐centred approach by examining differences in work‐related learning between different motivational profiles based on the conjoint development of self‐efficacy and achievement goals. Sample: Questionnaires were administered four times, starting in the beginning of students' final year of higher education until 4 months after graduation (N = 814). Methods: In order to assess the development of the personal factors, different multi‐indicator latent growth curve models were estimated. Afterwards, a multidimensional latent class growth analysis was used to identify latent profiles of participants with similar growth trajectories. Differences in work‐related learning were investigated by a multivariate analysis of variance. Results and Conclusions: The results revealed an average increase in self‐efficacy, learning‐goal, and performance‐approach orientation, indicating that the transition to work triggers change in these personal factors. Performance‐avoidance orientation decreased on average. Four distinct motivational profiles were discerned: strongly efficacious and approach‐oriented, moderate efficacious and approach‐oriented, moderate efficacious and learning‐oriented, and undecided profile. Furthermore, differences were found concerning work‐related learning, in which the strongly efficacious and approach‐oriented profile reported more participation in formal and informal learning activities using personal sources, while the undecided profile showed least participation in the latter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Lecturers give feedback on assessed work in the hope that students will take it on board and use it to help regulate their learning for the next assessment. However, little is known about how students' conceptions of feedback relate to students' self-regulated learning and self-efficacy beliefs and academic performance. Aims This study explores student beliefs about the role and purpose of feedback and the relationship of those beliefs to self-reported self-regulation and self-efficacy, and achievement. Sample A total of 278 university students in a general education course on learning theory and approaches in a research-intensive university. Methods Self-reported survey responses for students' conceptions of feedback ( SCoF), self-regulation ( SRL), academic self-efficacy ( ASE), and Grade Point Average ( GPA) were evaluated first with confirmatory factor analysis and then interlinked in a structural equation model. Results and conclusions Three SCoF factors predicted SRL and/or GPA. The SCoF factor 'I use feedback' had positive associations with SRL (β = .44), GPA (β = .45), and ASE (β = .15). The SCoF factors 'tutor/marker comments' and 'peers help' both had negative relations to GPA (β = −.41 and −.16, respectively). 'Peers help' had a positive connection to SRL (β = .21). ASE itself made a small contribution to overall GPA (β = .16), while SRL had no statistically significant relation to GPA. The model indicates the centrality of believing that feedback exists to guide next steps in learning and thus contributes to SRL, ASE, and increased GPA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background The potential role of culture in the development and operation of self-efficacy has been acknowledged by researchers. Clearer understanding of this cultural impact will benefit from research that shows how the same efficacy information is evaluated across cultures. Aims We tested whether two sources of self-efficacy information delivered by multiple social agents (i.e., vicarious experience and social persuasion) were weighed differently by adolescents in different cultures. Sample Of 2,893 middle school students in Korea ( n = 416), the Philippines ( n = 522), and the United States ( n = 1,955) who completed the survey, 400 students were randomly pooled from each country. Methods Invariance of the measurement and of the latent means for self-efficacy and self-efficacy sources across the groups was tested by multigroup confirmatory factor analysis. Predictive utility of the self-efficacy sources was compared by multigroup structural equation modelling. Results Compared to the students in the two collectivistic countries, the US students reported significantly higher mathematics self-efficacy. Whereas the efficacy beliefs of the Korean and the US students were predicted equally well by the vicarious experience from their teachers and the social persuasion by their family and peers, those of the Filipino adolescents were best predicted by the social persuasion from their peers. Conclusions This study provided empirical evidence that socially conveyed sources of self-efficacy information are construed and evaluated differently across cultures, depending on who delivered the efficacy-relevant information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Self-based achievement goals use one's own intrapersonal trajectory as a standard of evaluation, and this intrapersonal trajectory may be grounded in one's past (past-based goals) or one's future potential (potential-based goals). Potential-based goals have been overlooked in the literature to date. Aims The primary aim of the present research was to address this oversight within the context of the 3 × 2 achievement goal framework. Samples The Study 1 sample was 381 US undergraduates; the Study 2 sample was 310 US undergraduates. Methods In Study 1, we developed scales to assess potential-approach and potential-avoidance goals and tested their factorial validity with exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. In Study 2, we used confirmatory factor analysis to test both the separability of past-based and potential-based goals and their higher order integration within the self-based category. Results Study 1 supported the factorial validity of the potential-approach and potential-avoidance goal scales. Study 2 supported the separability of past-based and potential-based goals, as well as their higher order integration within the self-based category. Conclusions This research documents the utility of the proposed distinction and paves the way for subsequent work on antecedent and consequences of potential-approach and potential-avoidance goals. It highlights the importance of focusing on distinct types of growth-based goals in the achievement goal literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Goal-setting theory continues to be among the most popular and influential theories of motivation and performance, although there have been limited academic applications relative to applications in other domains, such as organizational psychology. Aims This paper summarizes existing quantitative research and then employs a qualitative approach to exploring academic growth via an in-depth reflective growth goal-setting methodology. Sample The study focuses on 92 UK final-year students enrolled in an elective advanced interpersonal skills and personal development module, with self-reflection and growth goal setting at its core. Method Qualitative data in the form of regular reflective written diary entries and qualitative questionnaires were collected from students during, on completion of, and 6 months following the personal growth goal-setting programme. Results About 20% of students' self-set growth goals directly related to academic growth and performance; students reported that these had a strong impact on their achievement both during and following the reflective programme. Growth goals that were indirectly related to achievement (e.g., stress management) appeared to positively impact academic growth and other outcomes (e.g., well-being). A follow-up survey revealed that growth goal setting continued to impact academic growth factors (e.g., self-efficacy, academic performance) beyond the reflective programme itself. Conclusions Academic growth can result from both academically direct and indirect growth goals, and growth goal setting appears to be aided by the process of simultaneous growth reflection. The implications for promoting academic growth via this unique learning and development approach are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background After graduation from secondary school, academic tasks (i.e., learning contents) are no longer structured in terms of school subjects (i.e., English, mathematics). Therefore, learners lack past performance and mastery experience to inform their expectancy of success (i.e., ability beliefs) regarding novel tasks. Aims In this paper, we investigate how individuals establish expectancy of success regarding novel academic tasks. We hypothesize that individuals draw on ability beliefs regarding known tasks that are deemed similar to novel tasks to estimate expectancy of success (generalization hypothesis). Sample(s) Participants were first-year students ( n = 354) in the field of business administration (Study 1), and (Study 2) psychology students predominantly ( n = 174). Methods In Study 1, we analysed relations between ability beliefs (i.e., academic self-concepts of ability) regarding four school subjects and four fields of study varying in similarity. In Study 2, we assessed mastery experience regarding two school subjects and expectancy of success (i.e., self-efficacy) regarding a fictitious course manipulating participants' similarity judgement. We analysed the data using mainly structural equation modelling. Results Results support the generalization hypothesis regarding both indicators of expectancy of success (i.e., self-concept and self-efficacy). Subject-specific self-concepts of ability predict study-related self-concepts of ability according to individuals' similarity judgements. Subject-specific mastery experience predicts expectancy of success only if the respective school subject is emphasized in the course description. Conclusion Individuals apparently draw on established ability beliefs regarding known tasks to inform their expectancy of success regarding novel tasks. Findings further our understanding of the development of motivation to learn in adulthood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background In the field of intelligence research, it has been shown that some people conceive intelligence as a fixed trait that cannot be changed (entity beliefs), whereas others conceive it as a malleable trait that can be developed (incremental beliefs). What about writing? Do people hold similar implicit theories about the nature of their writing ability? Furthermore, are these beliefs likely to influence students' response to a writing intervention? Aims We aimed to develop a scale to measure students' implicit theories of writing (pilot study) and to test whether these beliefs influence strategy-instruction effectiveness (intervention study). Sample In the pilot and intervention studies participated, respectively, 128 and 192 students (Grades 5-6). Method Based on existing instruments that measure self-theories of intelligence, we developed the Implicit Theories of Writing ( ITW) scale that was tested with the pilot sample. In the intervention study, 109 students received planning instruction based on the self-regulated strategy development model, whereas 83 students received standard writing instruction. Students were evaluated before, in the middle, and after instruction. Results ITW's validity was supported by piloting results and their successful cross-validation in the intervention study. In this, intervention students wrote longer and better texts than control students. Moreover, latent growth curve modelling showed that the more the intervention students conceived writing as a malleable skill, the more the quality of their texts improved. Conclusion This research is of educational relevance because it provides a measure to evaluate students' implicit theories of writing and shows their impact on response to intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background The reciprocal I/ E model ( RI/ EM) combines the internal/external frame of reference model ( I/ EM) with the reciprocal effects model ( REM). The RI/ EM extends the I/ EM longitudinally and the REM across domains. The model predicts that, within domains, mathematics and verbal achievement ( VACH) and academic self-concept have positive effects on subsequent mathematics and VACH and academic self-concept within domains but have negative effects across domains. Aims The main purpose is to validate the RI/ EM and extend it using objective achievement indicators and grades. Sample Two waves of data collection from grade 5 to grade 9 with N = 1,045 secondary school students were used. Methods Test scores, grades, and self-concept data were obtained. The main analyses were conducted using hierarchical linear modelling. Results The positive longitudinal effects of grades and test scores on subsequent grades, test scores and academic self-concept within domains and the negative effects of grades and test scores on subsequent academic self-concept across domains supported the RI/ EM. The effects of academic self-concept on subsequent grades and test scores across domains were near zero when prior achievement indicators were controlled for. Overall, the results using school grades as achievement measures were replicated using standardized achievement test scores. Conclusions The results serve to highlight the importance of the combination of common theories, which are mostly investigated individually, to enhance our understanding of the complexity of within- and across-domain relations between academic self-concepts and achievement using grades as well as test scores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Experimental/correlational studies have consistently demonstrated that the contents of an individual's goals play an important role within future motivations, learning processes, and outcomes. Aims The aim of the study was to extend past findings by employing a three-point, cross-lagged latent simultaneous structural model in the examination of the role of intrinsic/extrinsic goals' effects on key proximal motivations, learning variables, and achievement in the context of a Japanese university. Sample This study consisted of first-year students within seven departments, attending one university ( n = 584). Methods Employing three data points, separated by 8 and 7 months, this study tests the effects of students' instrumental goals on future motivations, approaches to learning and learning outcomes. Three goals were the focus of this study: Distal internally regulated, distal externally regulated, and proximal externally regulated. Internally regulated goals were hypothesized to be broadly adaptive, while externally regulated goals were hypothesized to be maladaptive. Results Findings reflected the broad importance of internal regulation for goals. Internally regulated goals positively predicted mastery goals and negatively predicted task valuation and effort belief deficits 8 months later. While not predicting achievement directly, internally regulated goals were the strongest predictor of future deep approaches to learning despite the lag of 15 months. Proximal externally regulated goals had no significant cross-lagged effects, and distal externally regulated goals had a negative predictive effect on future deep approaches to learning. Conclusions This study extends intrinsic/extrinsic goal research both within education broadly and in the context of Japan. Furthermore, instrumental goals were found to play important roles supporting students in overcoming future motivation deficits and the pursuit of deep approaches to learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Students' perceived control over academic outcomes has been linked to their use of self-regulated strategies. However, students' sense of responsibility, or internal commitment to produce such outcomes, has not often been considered in this relationship. Aims The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between perceived academic control ( PAC), student responsibility ( SR), and knowledge building ( KB). Sample Participants were 152 undergraduate students enrolled in an educational technology course. Methods An exploratory factor analysis was conducted to demonstrate the distinction between the PAC and SR constructs. A series of regression analyses were conducted to address the research hypotheses, and a bootstrap test was used to assess the mediating role of SR in the relationship between the PAC variables and KB. Results Initial evidence regarding the uniqueness of the PAC and SR constructs was provided. PAC (both primary control and secondary control [ SC]) were positively and significantly related to SR. KB was positively and significantly related to SR, as was SC. Additionally, SR partially mediated the relationship between the PAC variables and KB. Conclusions The findings showed that those who perceived the capability to achieve academic outcomes were more likely to feel internally obligated to produce such outcomes. The same was true for students who perceived the capability to psychologically adjust to academic situations. The results also demonstrated that students' sense of responsibility for academic outcomes played a partially mediating role in the relationship between their perceptions of control and reported use of self-regulated behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Academic self-efficacy, when operationalized as mastery over domain-specific knowledge, has been found to be a predictor of academic achievement and emotions. Although academic emotions are also a predictor of academic achievement, there is limited evidence for reciprocal relations with academic achievement. Aims To examine whether academic self-efficacy, when operationalized as confidence in study-related skills and behaviours, is also a predictor of academic achievement and emotions and to test reciprocal relations between academic emotions and achievement. Sample Two hundred and six first-year undergraduate students. Methods Academic self-efficacy was measured at the beginning of the first semester and learning-related emotions (LREs) at the beginning of the second semester. Academic performance was aggregated across assessments in semester one and semester two. Results Self-efficacy in study-related skills and behaviours predicted: (1) better semester one academic performance and (2) more pleasant and fewer unpleasant LREs at the beginning of the second semester directly and (3) indirectly through semester one academic performance. Reciprocal relations between academic performance and emotions were supported, but only for pleasant emotions. Conclusions Self-efficacy in study-related skills was the critical academic self-efficacy variable in this study. It may play an important role in maintaining challenge appraisals to maintain pleasant emotions and better academic performance. Accordingly, practitioners in higher education may wish to consider the value of assessing and developing students' self-efficacy in relation to their independent study skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. In separate studies and research from different perspectives, five factors are found to be among those related to higher quality outcomes of student learning (academic achievement). Those factors are higher self-efficacy, deeper approaches to learning, higher quality teaching, students' perceptions that their workload is appropriate, and greater learning motivation. University learning improvement strategies have been built on these research results. Aim. To investigate how students' evoked prior experience, perceptions of their learning environment, and their approaches to learning collectively contribute to academic achievement. This is the first study to investigate motivation and self-efficacy in the same educational context as conceptions of learning, approaches to learning and perceptions of the learning environment. Sample. Undergraduate students (773) from the full range of disciplines were part of a group of over 2,300 students who volunteered to complete a survey of their learning experience. On completing their degrees 6 and 18 months later, their academic achievement was matched with their learning experience survey data. Method. A 77-item questionnaire was used to gather students' self-report of their evoked prior experience (self-efficacy, learning motivation, and conceptions of learning), perceptions of learning context (teaching quality and appropriate workload), and approaches to learning (deep and surface). Academic achievement was measured using the English honours degree classification system. Analyses were conducted using correlational and multi-variable (structural equation modelling) methods. Results. The results from the correlation methods confirmed those found in numerous earlier studies. The results from the multi-variable analyses indicated that surface approach to learning was the strongest predictor of academic achievement, with self-efficacy and motivation also found to be directly related. In contrast to the correlation results, a deep approach to learning was not related to academic achievement, and teaching quality and conceptions of learning were only indirectly related to achievement. Conclusions. Research aimed at understanding how students experience their learning environment and how that experience relates to the quality of their learning needs to be conducted using a wider range of variables and more sophisticated analytical methods. In this study of one context, some of the relations found in earlier bivariate studies, and on which learning intervention strategies have been built, are not confirmed when more holistic teaching-learning contexts are analysed using multi-variable methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. The study deepened our understanding of how students' self-efficacy beliefs contribute to the context of teaching English as a foreign language in the framework of cognitive mediational paradigm at a fine-tuned task-specific level. Aim. The aim was to examine the relationship among task complexity, self-efficacy beliefs, domain-related prior knowledge, learning strategy use, and task performance as they were applied to English vocabulary learning from reading tasks. Sample. Participants were 120 second-year university students (mean age 21) from a Chinese university. Method. This experiment had two conditions (simple/complex). A vocabulary level test was first conducted to measure participants' prior knowledge of English vocabulary. Participants were then randomly assigned to one of the learning tasks. Participants were administered task booklets together with the self-efficacy scales, measures of learning strategy use, and post-tests. Data obtained were submitted to multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and path analysis. Results. Results from the MANOVA model showed a significant effect of vocabulary level on self-efficacy beliefs, learning strategy use, and task performance. Task complexity showed no significant effect; however, an interaction effect between vocabulary level and task complexity emerged. Results from the path analysis showed self-efficacy beliefs had an indirect effect on performance. Our results highlighted the mediating role of self-efficacy beliefs and learning strategy use. Conclusions. Our findings indicate that students' prior knowledge plays a crucial role on both self-efficacy beliefs and task performance, and the predictive power of self-efficacy on task performance may lie in its association with learning strategy use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. The personal determinants of academic achievement and success have captured the attention of many scholars for the last decades. Among other factors, personality traits and self-efficacy beliefs have proved to be important predictors of academic achievement. Aims. The present study examines the unique contribution and the pathways through which traits (i.e., openness and conscientiousness) and academic self-efficacy beliefs are conducive to academic achievement at the end of junior and senior high school. Sample. Participants were 412 Italian students, 196 boys and 216 girls, ranging in age from 13 to 19 years. Methods. The hypothesized relations among the variables were tested within the framework of structural equation model. Results and conclusions. Openness and academic self-efficacy at the age of 13 contributed to junior high-school grades, after controlling for socio-economic status (SES). Junior high-school grades contribute to academic self-efficacy beliefs at the age of 16, which in turn contributed to high-school grades, over and above the effects of SES and prior academic achievement. In accordance with the posited hypothesis, academic self-efficacy beliefs partially mediated the contribution of traits to later academic achievement. In particular, conscientiousness at the age of 13 affected high-school grades indirectly, through its effect on academic self-efficacy beliefs at the age of 16. These findings have broad implications for interventions aimed to enhance children's academic pursuits. Whereas personality traits represent stable individual characteristics that mostly derive from individual genetic endowment, social cognitive theory provides guidelines for enhancing students' efficacy to regulate their learning activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Academic buoyancy is students' ability to successfully deal with setbacks and challenges that are typical of academic life. The present study extends previous preliminary cross-sectional work that tentatively identified five motivational predictors of academic buoyancy — referred to as the SCs' of academic buoyancy: confidence (self-efficacy), coordination (planning), commitment (persistence), composure (low anxiety), and control (low uncertain control). Aims. The study seeks to more clearly ascertain the effects of motivation (and its mediating role) on academic buoyancy over and above prior academic buoyancy. Sample. The study comprised N = 1,866 high school students from six schools. Method. Longitudinal data were collected (1 year apart) and the hypothesized model exploring longitudinal effects was tested using structural equation modelling. Results. After controlling for prior variance in academic buoyancy, the 5Cs were significant predictors of subsequent academic buoyancy. Furthermore, over and above the direct effects of prior academic buoyancy on subsequent academic buoyancy, the 5Cs significantly mediated this relationship. Conclusions. The study concludes with a discussion of the substantive, applied, and methodological implications for researchers and practitioners seeking to investigate and address the academic buoyancy of students who require the capacity to effectively function in an ever-challenging school environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. The strategies students adopt in their study are influenced by a number of social-cognitive factors and impact upon their academic performance. Aims. The present study examined the interrelationships between motivation orientation (intrinsic and extrinsic), self-efficacy (in reading academic texts and essay writing), and approaches to studying (deep, strategic, and surface). The study also examined changes in approaches to, studying over time. Sample. A total of 163 first-year undergraduate students in psychology at a UK university took part in the study. Methods. Participants completed the Work Preference Inventory motivation questionnaire, self-efficacy in reading and writing questionnaires and the short version of the Revised Approaches to Study Inventory. Results. The results showed that both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation orientations were correlated with approaches to studying. The results also showed that students classified as high in self-efficacy (reading and writing) were more likely to adopt a deep or strategic approach to studying, while students classified as low in self-efficacy (reading and writing) were more likely to adopt a surface approach. More importantly, changes in students' approaches to studying over time were related to their self-efficacy beliefs, where students with low levels of self-efficacy decreased in their deep approach and increased their surface approach across time. Students with high levels of self-efficacy (both reading and writing) demonstrated no such change in approaches to studying. Conclusions. Our results demonstrate the important role of self-efficacy in understanding both motivation and learning approaches in undergraduate students. Furthermore, given that reading academic text and writing essays are essential aspects of many undergraduate degrees, our results provide some indication that focusing on self-efficacy beliefs amongst students may be beneficial to improving their approaches to study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Most previous studies in Western societies have demonstrated a general decline in school motivation. However, it is not clear whether motivational decline occurs uniformly for all students. The moderating effects of individual and cultural differences on students' motivational decline need to be further explored. Aims. This study aimed to examine the grade differences in students' reading motivation, including self-efficacy, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and social motivation, in a Chinese educational context. Grade by gender and grade by school. average achievement interactions were also checked to explore the role of individual differences in students' motivational changes. Sample. A total of 1,794 students (860 boys and 934 girls) volunteered to take part in this study, of whom 648 were Grade 4-6 students from II primary schools, 627 were Grade 7-9 students from 12 junior secondary schools, and 519 Grade 10-I I students from 6 senior secondary schools. Method. A Chinese version of the Motivation for Reading Questionnaire (CRMQ) was administered to all participants during regular class periods by their teachers. Reliability analyses and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were first undertaken to assess the psychometric quality of the CRMQ. Then, multisample CFA was conducted to examine whether the factor structure of the CRMQ was equivalent across students at different grade levels. Grade differences in various reading motivation constructs as well as grade × gender and grade × school-average achievement interactions were examined using multiple-indicator-multiple-causes modelling. Results. The findings of this study supported the reliability and the factor structure of the CRMQ in measuring the reading motivation of Chinese students at different grade levels. The factor pattern of the CRMQ was invariant across primary, junior secondary, and senior secondary students in multisample CFA. As far as the scores on the four reading motivation constructs were concerned, students scored most highly on intrinsic motivation, followed by self-efficacy, extrinsic motivation, and social motivation. Significant grade differences were found in all reading motivation constructs whereas only a few grade by gender and grade by school-average interactions were found. Conclusion. Consistent with previous studies in Western countries, the findings suggest that motivational decline is also a common phenomenon among Chinese students in Hong Kong. In addition, the pattern of motivational differences is generally consistent among students with different genders and from schools with different achievement levels. The implications of these findings for understanding Chinese students' reading motivation and for planning effective reading instruction to enhance their motivation are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Self-determination theory defines two important dimensions of teaching style: autonomy support and structure. Aims. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the synergistic relationship of perceived teacher autonomy support and the provision of structure in the prediction of self-regulated learning. Sample and method. Students (N = 526) completed questionnaires assessing perceived autonomy support, structure, and self-regulated learning. Results. First, autonomy support and structure were found to be positively correlated, suggesting that the support of student autonomy generally goes hand in hand with the provision of structure and order in the classroom. Second, moderated regression analyses indicated that structure but not autonomy support yielded a main effect on self-regulated learning, although this main effect was qualified by a structure by autonomy support interaction. Conclusion. The interaction suggests that structure was associated with more self-regulated learning under conditions of moderate and high autonomy support only. Therefore, when teachers want their students to evaluate themselves, to plan their study activities, and to think about themselves as learners, the teachers are encouraged to provide help, instructions, and expectations in an autonomy-supportive way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Although the relationship between collective efficacy and group performance has been frequently investigated, a few studies have investigated the development of collective efficacy. Aim. This paper proposes some determinants of collective efficacy in small university groups. Group level hypotheses and research questions relating collective efficacy to collective cognition activities, task interdependence, self-efficacy for group work, and collective orientation were posited. Sample. The sample comprised 145 university students in 40 work-groups. Method. A two-phase longitudinal design was employed in the context of university student groups. All groups were required to perform interdependent academic tasks. Aggregated variables were used after testing for within-group agreement. Results. The results of multiple regression analysis provided some evidence that the more group members perceived themselves to be interdependent in the early stages of group work and assigned their tasks interdependently during group processes, the more likely they were to develop high collective efficacy in the final stages of group work. Collective efficacy was also related to the group average of self-efficacy for group work especially when task interdependence was perceived to be high. Conclusions. The results suggest that forming groups with capable university students in group work, strengthening university students' perceptions of themselves as interdependent in the early stages of academic group work and assigning interdependent group tasks during group work may contribute to the development of high collective efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]