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The present research examines the relationship between political orientation and attitude towards new teaching interventions. Parents of pupils read the description of a “new teaching intervention” and reported their interest in this intervention and their support for its implementation in their children's school. Depending on the experimental condition, the intervention was presented either as equalising the academic performance of pupils from advantaged and disadvantaged backgrounds (“equalising” intervention) or as maintaining them (the “maintaining” intervention). Their political orientation was also measured. Results showed that the more parents tended towards the right wing of the political scale, the less interested they were in the intervention and the less they supported its implementation in their children’s school. In addition, political orientation was related to support for the equalising intervention but not the maintaining (i.e., enhancing) intervention. The implications of these results for school change are discussed., Cette recherche étudie le lien entre orientation politique et attitude vis-à-vis d’une nouvelle méthode pédagogique. Des parents d’élèves ont lu la description d’une nouvelle méthode pédagogique et ont rapporté leur intérêt dans cette méthode ainsi que leur soutien à sa mise en place dans l’école de leurs enfants. En fonction de la condition expérimentale, la méthode était présentée, soit comme égalisant les performances scolaires des élèves issus de milieux favorisés et défavorisés (méthode « égalisante »), soit comme les maintenant (méthode « maintenante »). L’orientation politique des parents était mesurée. Les résultats ont montré que plus leur orientation politique tendait vers la droite, moins les parents étaient intéressés par la méthode et moins ils soutenaient son implémentation. En outre, l’orientation à droite prédisait négativement le soutien à la méthode égalisante, et non à la méthode maintenante. Les implications de ces résultats pour le changement de l’école sont discutées.

International audience; In primary school, learning fractions is a central mathematical objective. However, the mastery of basic procedures involving fractions presents a difficulty for many students. The aim of the current intervention is to introduce structured cooperative learning as means to improve students' learning, particularly for average achievers. Previous research has underscored that heterogeneous groups might be deleterious for average achievers because they are excluded by the teacher learner relationships that is likely to take place between low and high achievers students. This intervention proposes structuring interactions in order to boost the learning of average achievers in heterogeneous groups. We hypothesize that highly structured cooperative learning should improve average achievers' understanding of the content-targeted in group work as well as progress in terms of fractions learning, when compared to low-structured cooperative learning. In this intervention, 108 fifth graders worked cooperatively in heterogeneous triads (a low, average, and high achiever). The triads had to express the length of one segment using three rulers with different sub-units and respecting three mathematical skills regarding fractions. Triads were randomly assigned to a low-structured or high-structured cooperative learning condition. In the low-structured condition, no specific structure was provided. (i.e., they organized their cooperative work as they wished). In the high-structured condition, each student became an expert for one part before working in the triad and endorsed different responsibilities. The results indicated that highly structured cooperative learning favors the understanding of the targeted task, especially for average-ability students. Moreover, students at all levels progressed from the baseline test to the post-test. Indeed, low and high achievers had the same progression in both conditions, whereas average achievers progressed more in the highly structured condition. Results are discussed in terms of new teaching methods that could efficiently increase average achievers’ performances.

International audience; In the present research, we proposed a systematic approach to disentangling the shared and unique variance explained by achievement goals, reasons for goal pursuit, and specific goal-reason combinations (i.e., achievement goal complexes). Four studies using this approach (involving nearly 1,800 participants) led to 3 basic sets of findings. First, when testing goals and reasons separately, mastery (-approach) goals and autonomous reasons explained variance in beneficial experiential (interest, satisfaction, positive emotion) and self-regulated learning (deep learning, help-seeking, challenging tasks, persistence) outcomes. Second, when testing goals and reasons simultaneously, mastery goals and autonomous reasons explained independent variance in most of the outcomes, with the predictive strength of each being diminished. Third, when testing goals, reasons, and goal complexes together, the autonomous mastery goal complex explained incremental variance in most of the outcomes, with the predictive strength of both mastery goals and autonomous reasons being diminished. Comparable results were observed for performance (-approach) goals, the autonomous performance goal complex, and performance goal-relevant outcomes. These findings suggest that achievement goals and reasons are both distinct and overlapping constructs, and that neither unilaterally eliminates the influence of the other. Integrating achievement goals and reasons offers the most promising avenue for a full account of competence motivation.

© 2017 Elsevier Inc. How are competitive goals transmitted over time? As most competence-relevant contexts (e.g., school) are hierarchy-relevant (e.g., teacher/students), supervisors’ performance-approach goals (desire to outperform others) should play a major role. We formulated a performance goals socialization hypothesis: The higher a supervisor's performance-approach goals, the stronger the effects of time on followers’ performance-approach and -avoidance (desire not to be outperformed by others) goals. Study 1, involving coaches and their soccer players, showed that indeed a performance goals socialization phenomenon exists. Study 2, involving thesis supervisors and their Ph.D. students, showed its consequences: performance goals socialization reduced subordinates’ motivation and well-being over time. Study 3, involving video game team leaders and their players, showed its enabling condition: the stronger the subordinates’ identification to their team, the more pronounced the performance goals socialization. Study 4, involving schoolteachers and their pupils, showed its directional moderator: the higher the subordinates’ perceived self-competence, the higher the change in performance-approach goals over time, and the lower that in performance-avoidance goals. It is then crucial to consider social hierarchy when studying goal formation. ispartof: Contemporary Educational Psychology vol:49 issue:49 pages:337-354 status: published

International audience; Socio-cognitive conflict has been defined as a situation of confrontation with a disagreeing other. Previous research suggests that individuals can regulate conflict in a relational way, namely by focusing on social comparison between relative levels of competences. Relational conflict regulation has been described as yielding particularly negative effects on social interactions and learning, but has been understudied. The present research addresses the question of the origin of relational conflict regulation by introducing a fundamental distinction between two types of regulation, one based on the affirmation of one's own point of view and the invalidation of the other's (i.e., " competitive " regulation), the other corresponding to the protection of self-competence via compliance (i.e., " protective " regulation). Three studies show that these modes of relational conflict regulation result from the endorsement of distinct performance goals, respectively performance-approach goals (trying to outperform others) and performance-avoidance goals (avoiding performing more poorly than others). Theoretical implications for the literature on both conflict regulation and achievement goals are discussed.

International audience; As compared to continuing-generation students, first-generation students are struggling more at university. In the present article, we question the unconditional nature of such a phenomenon and argue that it depends on structural competition. Indeed, most academic departments use harsh selection procedure all throughout the curriculum, fostering between-student competition. In these departments, first-generation students tend to suffer from a lack of student-institution fit, that is, inconsistencies with the competitive institution's culture, practices, and identity. However, one might contend that in less competitive academic departments continuing-generation students might be the ones experiencing a lack of fit. Using a cross-sectional design, we investigated the consequences of such a context-and category-dependent lack of fit on the endorsement of scholastically adaptive goals. We surveyed N = 378 first-and continuing-generation students from either a more competitive or a less competitive department in their first or final year of bachelor's study. In the more competitive department, first-to-third year decrease of mastery goals (i.e., the desire to learn) was found to be steeper for first-than for continuing-generation students. In the less competitive department, the reversed pattern was found. Moreover, first-to-third year decrease of performance goals (i.e., the desire to outperform others) was found to be steeper within the less competitive department but did not depend on social class. This single-site preliminary research highlights the need to take the academic context into account when studying the social class graduation gap.

Although competence-relevant activities (e.g., solving an academic problem) are often embedded in interpersonal (e.g., classroom), hierarchical (e.g., teacher/pupils), and norm-/value-specific (e.g., culture) settings, the study of performance goals—the desire to demonstrate competence relative to others—has mostly been conducted at the intrapersonal level alone. Drawing on the transactional model of stress and coping, the circumplex model of interpersonal behaviors, as well as on the conflict elaboration theory, the first part of this thesis reveals the interpersonal consequences of performance goals on the regulation of a specific behavior, namely socio-cognitive conflict (i.e., a situation of confrontation with a disagreeing interactant): Performance-approach goals—the desire to outperform others—predicted a highly agentic (dominant) conflict regulation, that is, the validation of one’s point of view at the expense of that of the interactant (which we labeled competitive regulation); whereas performance-avoidance goals—the desire not to be outperformed by others—predicted a poorly agentic (submissive) conflict regulation, that is, the invalidation of one’s point of view to the benefit of that of the interactant (which we labeled protective regulation). Furthermore, both the aforementioned effects were found to increase when the interactant was presented as being superiorly (vs. equally) in competence. Drawing on the literature on group goal structure, as well as on research on socialization of supervisors-based values, the second part of this thesis reveals the interpersonal antecedents of performance-based goals endorsement, focusing—more specifically—on the role of group-supervisors in performance goals socialization: Supervisor’s performance-approach goals were positively associated with the emergence over time of subordinates’ performance-approach (especially when perceiving themselves as competent) and -avoidance goals (especially when perceiving themselves as incompetent). Furthermore, providing evidence that this phenomenon essentially reflects a socialization process, both the aforementioned effects were found to increase as subordinates’ in-group identification increased, and as supervisors’ adherence to dominant Western values (i.e., self-enhancement values) increased. Taken together, these results advocate the need to study performance goals in their social plenum, that is, adopting an interpersonal (i.e., studying the effects of goals between individuals), positional (i.e., between individuals from different social positions), and ideological (i.e., between individuals following specific norms and endorsing specific values) perspective.; Bien que les activités où la compétence est un enjeu (p. ex. : problème académique) prennent souvent place dans des contextes interpersonnels (p. ex. : classe), hiérarchiques (p. ex. : enseignant-e/élèves), et spécifiques en termes de normes et de valeurs (p. ex. : culture), l’étude des buts de performance—le désir de se montrer compétent-e relativement à autrui—a le plus souvent été conduite au seul niveau intrapersonnel. S’appuyant sur le modèle transactionnel du stress et du coping, le modèle circumplexe des comportements interpersonnels, ainsi que sur la théorie de l’élaboration du conflit, la première partie de cette thèse révèle les conséquences interpersonnelles des buts de performance sur la régulation d’un comportement spécifique, à savoir le conflit sociocognitif (c.-à-d., une situation de confrontation avec un intéractant en désaccord) : les buts de performance-approche—le désir d’être meilleur-e qu’autrui—prédisent une régulation du conflit fortement agentique (dominante), soit la validation de son point de vue au détriment de celui de l’intéractant (que nous désignons régulation compétitive) ; alors que les buts de performance-évitement—le désir de ne pas être moins bonne qu’autrui—prédisent une régulation du conflit faiblement agentique (soumise), soit l’invalidation de son point de vue au bénéfice de celui de l’intéractant (que nous désignons régulation protective). De plus, les effets susmentionnés augmentent à mesure que l’intéractant est présenté comme supérieurement (vs. similairement) compétent. S’appuyant sur la littérature sur les structures de buts de groupe, et celle sur la socialisation des valeurs, la seconde partie de cette thèse révèle les antécédents interpersonnels des buts de performance, et plus spécifiquement le rôle du superviseur dans la socialisation des buts de performance : les buts de performance-approche d’un superviseur sont positivement associés avec l’émergence au cours du temps des buts de performance-approche de ses subordonnés (particulièrement lorsqu’ils se perçoivent comme compétents) et celle de leurs buts de performance-évitement (particulièrement lorsqu’ils se perçoivent comme incompétents). En outre, ce phénomène consistant en un processus de socialisation, les effets susmentionnés augmentent lorsque l’identification à l’endogroupe des subordonnées augmente, et lorsque l’adhésion aux valeurs culturelles occidentales dominantes (c.-à-d., rehaussement de soi) du superviseur augmente. Dans leur ensemble, ces résultats soulignent la nécessité d’étudier les buts dans leur plenum social, autrement dit, en adoptant une perspective interpersonnelle (c.-à-d., étudier les effets des buts entre les individus), positionnelle (c.-à-d., entre des individus de différentes positions sociales), et idéologique (c.-à-d., entre des individus se conformant à des normes spécifiques et adhérant à des valeurs spécifiques).