This study aims at investigating the direct effects of three motivation factors, self-efficacy, task value, and mastery goal orientation, and a deep cognitive strategy, critical thinking skills on students' mathematical reasoning ability. Besides, the study focuses on the examination of the mediating effects of critical thinking skills on the…

The role of mastery and performance goals in self-regulated learning (SRL) has received much attention. However, in collectivist and Confucian-heritage contexts, social-academic goals may also play an important, yet unexamined role in SRL. This study examined the association between social-academic goals and SRL. We tested a hierarchical model…

Students' social goals--reasons for engaging in interpersonal relationships with peers-are consequential for students' interactions with their peers at school and for their well-being. Despite the salience of peer relationships during adolescence, research on social goals is generally lacking compared with academic goals, and it is unknown how…

A relatively large number of South African learners drop out of school during the last 2 years of high school. This has important negative consequences for the individual learners, as well as for the country as a whole since it contributes greatly to the high number of unskilled and unemployed people. This study was carried out to explore whether,…

As a form of bias-based harassment, homophobic behavior remains prominent in schools. Yet, little attention has been given to factors that underlie it, aside from bullying and sexual prejudice. Thus, we examined multiple domain general (empathy, perspective-taking, classroom respect norms) and sexual orientation-specific factors (sexual…

Goal orientations are thought to be an important predictor of scholastic achievement. The present paper investigated the joint influence of goal orientations, intelligence, and personality on school performance in a sample of N=520 11th and 12th graders (303 female; mean age M=16.94 years). Intelligence, the Big Five factors of personality…

In this study, the relationship between students' interest in engineering design activities and their expectancy for success in grades 9-12 was evaluated. The theoretical frameworks developed by Eccles and colleagues (i.e., expectancy value) and Butler and Cartier (i.e., what the students bring to contexts under a self-regulated learning…

The present study examined to which extent different motivational concepts contribute to the prediction of school achievement among adolescent students independently from intelligence. A sample of 342 11th and 12th graders (age M = 16.94; SD = .71) was investigated. Students gave self-reports on domain-specific values, ability self-perceptions,…

Guided by the trichotomous achievement goal framework, the current study examined mastery, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance goals and their relations to self-reported persistence/effort among Turkish students in secondary physical education. Two hundred twenty-nine students in grades 8 and 11 completed questionnaires assessing their…