Background: Education is a key variable for reaching individually and socially desired outcomes. Specifically, school grades are important admission criteria for higher education and job positions. Nowadays, in countries committed to equal opportunities, girls obtain better school grades than boys, but the reasons why girls outperform boys are not…

This study investigated how teachers' achievement goals for teaching and implicit theories of their students' intelligence are associated with the goal structures that they create in their classrooms. Teachers ("N" = 209) reported their achievement goals for teaching (mastery, performance-approach goals, and performance-avoidance goals),…

In a nationwide survey of high school dropouts conducted in 2006, 69 percent said that school had not motivated or inspired them to work hard. The majority of educational reforms have focused on curriculum and pedagogy--what material is taught and how it is taught. However, psychological factors--often called motivational or non-cognitive…