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Combinations of text and different types of pictures are commonplace in biology as in science in general. The single representations (i.e., text, picture) constituting a text-picture combination may contain redundant or complementary information. The ability to identify and integrate information in different kinds of text-picture combinations is indispensable for engaging in science and is normatively expected to be acquired in school. In this experimental study, which was not preregistered in an independent institutional registry, N = 240 undergraduate students worked on 2 constructed-response biology tasks originating from authentic final exams to obtain the higher education entrance qualification. The material carried equivalent information between conditions but consisted of redundant or non-redundant text-picture combinations or only texts. Analysis of variance revealed negative effects of the depictive representations on students' performance, but these effects only occurred in 1 of the 2 tasks: Students in the text-only group reached the highest mean score, those who worked with the non-redundant text-picture combinations the lowest mean score. Implications for science education are discussed.

Energy is an important concept in all natural sciences, and a challenging one for school science education. Students' conceptual knowledge of energy is often low, and they entertain misconceptions. Educational research in science and mathematics suggests that learning through depictive representations and learning from errors, based on the theory of negative knowledge, can potentially foster students' knowledge of abstract concepts such as energy. Thus, we propose here an instructional approach that combines these two strategies to foster conceptual knowledge of energy. It involves inserting an error in a biological energy flow diagram, an error that we derived from two prevalent misconceptions about energy: 1) plants get some of their energy from the soil or 2) energy cycles in an ecosystem. The approach's effect on students' conceptual knowledge of energy was tested in an intervention study with pre-post design and 304 ninth grade students (M = 14.79 years). Students who successfully identified and explained the error achieved larger gains in conceptual knowledge than students learning with a correct diagram. Thus, the proposed instructional approach holds promise for improving energy teaching.

Solving test items might require abilities in test-takers other than the construct the test was designed to assess. Item and student characteristics such as item format or reading comprehension can impact the test result. This experiment is based on cognitive theories of text and picture comprehension. It examines whether integration aids, which relate pictorial representations to the corresponding textual representations in item stimuli, affect performance in a science test. The results show that items containing referential connections between both representations and highlighting associated information are easier to solve than non-integrated items (i.e., items without aids). However, this is only true for information-complementary representations, not for information-equivalent representations. Furthermore, an effect of reading comprehension on students' test performance observed when complementary information was presented in a non-integrated format was absent in the integrated format condition.

Devaluing an academic domain is a potential means of alleviating the psychological discomfort that results from the inconsistency of a low domain-specific self-concept of ability and great value attached to the domain. Such motivated devaluation of a domain is expected to be stronger in cultural contexts that promote a relatively greater focus on striving for a unique and consistent self than on the fulfillment of relevant others' expectations. Moreover, motivated devaluation is expected to be stronger the closer the value construct is tied to the self. Multiple group structural equation models tested whether students' self-concepts of their science ability differentially predicted the values students attach to science in Western and East Asian subsamples of the Programme for International Student Assessment. Science self-concept predicted value of science in all countries; however, the effects were stronger in Western than East Asian countries. Moreover, effects were stronger for the psychologically more proximal personal than for the more distal general value of science. Results are thus in line with the proposition that the value students attach to an academic domain in part results from a motivated process driven by their domain-specific self-concept of ability.

Considerable research has focused on how best to satisfy modern societies' needs for skilled labour in the field of science. The present study evaluated an intervention programme designed to increase secondary school students' motivation to pursue a science career. Students from 3 schools of the highest educational track participated for up to 2 years in the intervention programme, which was implemented as an elective in the school curriculum. Our longitudinal study design for evaluating the effectiveness of the intervention programme included all students at the grade levels involved in the programme with students who did not participate serving as a control group. Mixed-model analyses of variance showed none of the intended effects of the intervention programme on science motivation; latent growth models corroborated these results. When the programme began, students who enrolled in the science elective (n?=?92) were already substantially more motivated than their classmates (n?=?228). Offering such an intervention programme as an elective did not further increase the participating students' science motivation. It seems worthwhile to carry out intervention programmes with talented students who show (comparatively) little interest in science at the outset rather than with highly motivated students who self-select into the programme.

Student misbehavior is a pervasive problem and may seriously affect academic achievement. Previous research hints at different effects depending on whether achievement tests or achievement judgments are used as academic outcomes. Previous research also indicates that low achievement can conversely contribute to problem behavior and that low self-esteem--maybe as a consequence of low achievement--is a further source of problem behavior during adolescence. The purpose of this 3-wave longitudinal study was to investigate the complex interplay of externalizing problem behavior, self-esteem, and academic achievement as measured by teacher-given grades and standardized tests in reading comprehension and mathematics. Participants were N = 1,045 junior high school students followed from Grade 5 to Grade 9. Results of structural equation models were fairly consistent across both domains. The findings imply that externalizing problems are reflected in teacher-given grades more than in standardized achievement tests. Furthermore, worse grades were found to have unique detrimental effects on increased future externalizing problem behavior repeatedly over time and across domains. The reciprocal effects between externalizing problems and school grades tend to lead into a downward spiral. Self-esteem negatively affected externalizing problems in earlier grades and served as a partial mediator between school grades and subsequent externalizing problem behavior. The implications for educational practice and future research are discussed.

Many researchers consider a lacking interest in science and the students' belief that science is too demanding as major reasons why young people do not strive for science-related careers. In this article, we first delineated a theoretical framework to investigate the importance of interest, self-concept, and school factors regarding students' career preferences. Then, we tested the expected effects on a sample of German 9th-grade students ("N" = 7,813). We focused on two school factors: the amount of (additional) science activities and the real-life applications in science classes. The multi-level analysis showed that school factors were highly relevant for the students' interest in science and science self-concept. In turn, interest in science and science self-concept affect the students' interest in science-related careers. We conclude that focusing on the link between individual and school characteristics is important for the understanding of students' interest in science-related careers.