Over the past fifty years, extensive research has examined the influence of causal attributions on cognitions, emotions, and behaviours in educational contexts. However, these studies often relied on inferences about dimensional properties of attributions, and not on students' perceptions of them. This study innovates by directly assessing these…

How does the act of explaining influence learning? Prior work has studied effects of explaining through a predominantly proximal lens, measuring short-term outcomes or manipulations within lab settings. Here, we ask whether the benefits of explaining extend to academic performance over time. Specifically, does the quality and frequency of student…

Using a dataset that includes over 17 million students from across all 50 states, we estimate the causal impact of making structural transitions into middle school (in grades 4, 5, 6, or 7) on student math and reading achievement trajectories. This dataset provides an ideal opportunity to engage in the valuable scientific practice of conducting…

Although prosocial behavior has been regarded as a critical predictor of positive peer relationships and teacher-student relationships, more interventional studies are needed to more confidently determine causality. Dizi Gui instruction, a Confucian classical approach, was used in the current research as a prosocial behavior intervention to test…

Students' causal attributions about the reasons underlying their academic successes are important because of the influence of those attributions on academic motivation. We investigated whether students' success attributions tend to be similar across academic subjects versus specific to academic domain, and whether domain-generality or specificity…

English learners' (ELs) day-to-day experiences in school change when reclassified as fully English proficient. Prior research, however, is mixed on how reclassification influences outcomes. Many studies also do not or cannot explore key long-term outcomes or identify impacts over time. In this study I leverage longitudinal student data in a…

Learners' academic self-concepts and attributions have been widely evidenced to substantially regulate their educational development. Developmentally, they will not only operate in a mutually reinforcing manner. Rather, self-concepts will directly affect learners' outcome attributions in a particular academic setting. Current research in the…

This study examined child cognitive-behavioural factors and parenting factors related to childhood depressive symptoms. Results indicate that positive and negative attributional styles were protective and vulnerable factors of depression symptoms, respectively, and the attribution-depression link was mediated by self-esteem and coping responses.…

To gain new perspective on the development of understandings and perceptions of income inequality, this study compared the reactions of six, eight, and 10-year-olds to a rich man and a poor man and the winners and losers of a contest of skill and a game of chance. Age differences in attributions for outcomes reflected a strengthening with age of…

This study examined the development of school-related causality beliefs which are children's generalized perceptions of the utility or power of different categories of specific means in producing school outcomes. Based on the action theory perspective, we analyzed the developmental model of these beliefs as well as the trajectories of the…

Goleman, Boyatzis, and McKee (2002) stated, "Leaders are made, not born" (p. 100). The quote is indicative of the shift in skills necessary to be a successful 21st-century learner. Instead of mere academic competencies, the 21st Century learner will need a different type of intelligence to be successful. Emotional intelligence may be…

This study aims to identify the problems encountered during the resource-based teaching implementations carried out with pre-service history teachers along with their reasons and suggest solutions. The study was a qualitative study using a case study design. The population of the study consisted of 5th grade pre-service history teachers continuing…

This study examined how parents' and children's beliefs about peer victimization are related to children's adjustment. A mediational model was proposed that addressed how adjustment is predicted by degree of victimization, as well as causal attributions of and coping responses to victimization. The participants were 100 fifth- or sixth-grade…

In an examination guided by cognitive developmental and attribution theory of how explanations of wealth and poverty and perceptions of rich and poor people change with age and are interrelated, 6-, 10-, and 14-year-olds (N = 88) were asked for their causal attributions and trait judgments concerning a rich man and a poor man. First graders, like…

Teachers are the primary agents for creating and maintaining a positive classroom climate--and promoting healthy interpersonal relations with, and among, their students (including the prevention of school bullying) is key to achieving this goal. For this study it was posited that students' willingness to report bullying to their teachers is an…