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The authors investigated the impact of explicit instruction and peer-assisted writing on students' writing motivation and self-efficacy for writing. Eleven teachers and their 206 fifth- and sixth-grade students participated in a 2 (explicit instruction vs. writing opportunities without explicit instruction) × 2 (peer-assisted writing vs. writing individually) experimental intervention study with a pretest-posttest design. The four experimental conditions were compared with a business-as-usual (BAU) condition. The five-week interventions were implemented in authentic classes by regular class teachers, who received a prior professional development training. Multilevel analyses showed that students who wrote with a peer were more autonomously motivated at posttest than BAU students. Additionally, BAU students and students receiving explicit instruction were more controlled motivated than students who were offered ample writing opportunities while practicing individually. Theoretical and educational implications are discussed in view of realizing a bright pathway towards autonomous writing motivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research studies have indicated that self-efficacy and hope explain a significant, independent portion of the variability in academic performance (D. H. Adelabu, 2008). Despite this recognition, there is an absence of research outlining the developmental trajectories of the aforementioned constructs over time. The author used latent growth modeling (LGM) procedures to investigate the developmental course of these 2 constructs over 4 occasions. Participants were 196 students (89 girls and 107 boys) from 3 secondary schools. Likert-type scale inventories were used to elicit relevant data from students. LGM analyses using SPSS AMOS 17 indicated significant individual differences in initial levels and change in individuals' self-efficacy beliefs and hope. The intercept mean and slope mean values revealed that self-efficacy and hope changed over time. The author discusses the findings ascertained with reference to applied teaching practices and continuing research development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The authors examined whether self-concept, self-efficacy, and self-esteem show differential predictive utility for academic achievement across age groups and domains. More specifically, the relationships of 3 self-constructs with achievement were examined in mathematics for elementary school students and mathematics and language arts for middle school students in Korea. Task value and test anxiety were hypothesized to mediate these relationships. Consistent with previous reports, domain-specific self-constructs such as self-efficacy and self-concept were better predictors of task value and achievement than was general self-esteem. Task value and test anxiety significantly mediated only the relationships of self-efficacy assessed by the Bandura-type scale to achievement. These domain-specific relationships tended to be stronger for middle school than elementary school students and in mathematics than language arts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By means of a longitudinal design the authors sought to determine the role of students' self-determined motivation in reducing the intention to drop out of high school over time, while taking into account the impact of academic performance and of socioeconomic status. The effects of students' self-efficacy and perceived support from parents and teachers were examined. A total of 426 students of grades 9-13 completed self-report estimates and their official school grades were also taken into consideration. Results showed that the level of self-determined motivation in students, which was directly related to the perception of teachers' autonomy support, was the best predictor of the intention to drop out of school. Self-efficacy had a significant impact both on self-determined motivation and academic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors proposed a model to explain how epistemological beliefs, achievement motivation, and learning approach related to achievement. The authors assumed that epistemological beliefs influence achievement indirectly through their effect on achievement motivation and learning approach. Participants were 1,041 6th-grade students. Results of the path analysis suggested that students who believed knowledge to be evolving (i.e., development) and handed down by authority (i.e., source) were more likely to be self-efficacious in their learning and were found to have higher levels of learning- and performance-goal orientations. In addition, although learning goal was positively related to meaningful learning, performance goal and self-efficacy were negatively related to the learning approaches. The direction of the relation between learning approaches and achievement was positive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]