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Highlights • Quantitative and qualitative methods point to different sources of self-efficacy. • Students combine information from various efficacy-relevant sources. • The sources of self-efficacy in math and science differ for some students. • Compared to boys, girls use more social information when judging their efficacy. • Students name different factors that raise or lower their self-efficacy. Abstract Rural living, particularly in economically distressed areas, may reduce students' educational opportunities and alter their self-beliefs. According to social cognitive theory, the contexts in which people live influence how they feel about their capabilities. The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences that raise and lower the math and science self-efficacy of students living in a rural, high-poverty area in Central Appalachia. A convergent mixed methods design was used to examine quantitative and qualitative survey data from 673 students in Grades 6–12 who took part in a multi-year study on academic motivation (Year 1 = 511; Year 2 = 391; Year 3 = 418). In the quantitative phase, structural equation models showed that Year 1 mastery experience raised and physiological states lowered students' math and science self-efficacy in Year 2. Deductive coding of students' responses to 4 open-ended questions in Year 3 indicated that other sources were also salient and differed by domain, their effect on self-efficacy, and student gender. Integrative analyses showed that students consider information from multiple sources when judging their capabilities. This research extends findings related to the sources of self-efficacy to the understudied population of rural learners, the less-studied context of science, and to the factors that not only increase but decrease perceived efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of learning, cost has mostly been discussed under the expectancy-value framework and defined as the perceived negative consequences of task engagement. The issue of cost has recently attracted growing interest among scholars, because it may provide insights regarding how to predict students’ avoidance motivation and behavior. In the present study, we investigated the potential benefits of an expectancy-value-cost approach for predicting outcomes related to adolescent students’ academic motivation and achievement in math. Using two data sets ( N  = 637 and N  = 211) of middle and high school students, we found that cost could successfully explain additional variance in multiple different variables related to academic motivation and achievement, beyond what could be predicted by expectancy and value. In particular, cost emerged as an important factor in predicting adolescent students’ adoption of avoidance goals, negative classroom affect, maladaptive academic outcomes, and exam scores. Findings of the present study extend the scope of expectancy-value theory by highlighting the importance of using expectancy, task value, and cost together to predict students’ academic motivation and educational outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined adolescents’ perceptions of peer and teacher supports in relation to internalized values, academic self-efficacy, efforts to learn, and goal orientations at the individual and classroom level in a sample of middle school ( n = 169) and high school ( n = 71) students from 6 schools (15 classrooms). Novel approaches to assessing classroom-level effects included use of coefficient of variation scores to capture consensus among student reports and use of cluster-robust standard errors to account for clustering. At the individual level, significance tests for indirect pathways and formal mediation indicated that relations between perceived peer expectations for prosocial behavior and effort and mastery orientation were mediated by internalized value; and, the relation between perceived emotional support from peers and effort was mediated by self-efficacy. At the classroom level, teachers who were perceived similarly by students with respect to provisions of emotional support also tended to have students who reported high levels of internalized value, and a high degree of student consensus concerning their teacher’s value for subject matter was related positively to their internalized value and effort. Consensus of student reports concerning internalized value was a negative predictor of performance orientation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-concept and self-efficacy are two of the most important motivational predictors of educational outcomes. As most research has studied these constructs separately, little is known about their differential relations to peer ability, opportunities-to-learn in classrooms, and educational outcomes. We investigated these relations by applying (multilevel) structural equation modeling to the German PISA 2006 data set. We found a correlation of ρ = .57 between self-concept and self-efficacy in science, advocating distinguishable constructs. Furthermore, science self-concept was better predicted by the average peer achievement ( Big-Fish-Little-Pond Effect ), whereas science self-efficacy was more strongly affected by inquiry-based learning opportunities. There were also differences in the predictive potential for educational outcomes: Self-concept was a better predictor of future-oriented motivation to aspire a career in the sciences, whereas self-efficacy was a better predictor of current ability. The study at hand provides strong evidence for the related but distinct nature of the two constructs and extends existing research on students' competence beliefs toward social comparisons and opportunities-to-learn. Further implications for the relevance of inquiry-based classroom activities and for the assessment of competence beliefs are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivational interference refers to affective, cognitive, and behavioral impairments during a focal activity due to conflicting action tendencies. In the present study, we focused on antecedents and domain-specific consequences of motivational interference during everyday study activities using an experience sampling approach. Fifty-eight university students provided real-time reports on their daily studying activities ( N  = 672) over the course of one week. They reported on their momentary affect, whether they experienced motivational conflict during their study activities, and, if so, indicated when this feeling emerged. After the experience sampling period, they reported on their academic and social adaptation as well as their study satisfaction, and rated their relative performance. Compared with non-conflicted studying activities, we found considerably lower positive affect during conflicted studying. Conflicts that existed before the initiation of the study activity, and conflicts that emerged during studying, yielded affective impairments. As expected, aggregated conflict experiences negatively predicted measures of academic functioning, but not students' social adaptation. The discussion focuses on motivational antecedents of interference effects during self-regulated learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• EI+PA is effective in improving upper-elementary students' writing performance. • There was no transfer effect of EI+PA to an uninstructed text genre. • EI+PA is effective in fostering upper-elementary students' self-efficacy for ideation. • EI+PA did not significantly promote upper-elementary students' motivation for writing. High-quality writing instruction is vital to supporting developing writers as they learn to plan, compose, and revise text. It is equally important that such instruction enhances students' self-efficacy for writing as well as their motivation to write. The main aim of the present study was to investigate the incremental effect of peer-assisted writing in an explicit writing instruction program on Flemish upper-elementary students' writing performance, self-efficacy for writing, and writing motivation. A randomized control design, using multilevel analyses, was conducted to determine the differential effectiveness of two experimental writing treatments (EI+PA and EI+IND) compared to a business as usual control condition (BAU). Both experimental writing treatments involved explicit instruction in writing, with students in one condition writing with a peer (EI+PA) and students in the other condition writing individually (EI+IND). Participating classes (N = 431 students, N = 20 teachers) were randomly assigned to the three conditions and students were assessed before and after instruction. EI+PA students outperformed both EI+IND and BAU students on the writing measure in the instructed genre but not in the uninstructed genre. Additionally, although EI+PA students were more confident as to their capability (self-efficacy) to generate ideas when compared to their EI+IND counterparts, EI+PA students' writing motivation, characterized by internal or external motives, was significantly lower than EI+IND students. The findings of the present study corroborate and extend the limited number of prior studies illustrating the surplus value of peer-assisted writing in explicit writing instruction programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]