The central research question of this empirical study was: How do student demographics, math self-efficacy, and math anxiety relate to and predict their choice of pedagogical agents serving as virtual math tutors? A total of 152 middle school students and 135 college students were surveyed on their perceived math self-efficacy, math anxiety, and…

This study investigated middle school students' behavioural, emotional, cognitive, and agentic engagement in science in relation to self-efficacy and learning environment variables. Learning environment variables addressed in the study were shared control, student negotiation, promoting mutual respect, and teacher feedback. Participants of the…

Discrete emotions provide a lens for understanding students' subjective experiences in physical education (PE). Enjoyment of PE is one discrete emotion that receives a great deal of attention because it promotes students' interest and engagement. However, the implications of students' negative emotions toward PE remain less clear. Therefore, the…

Computer programming is becoming an essential skill for young students regardless of their education or career goals. Therefore, for students to develop and for educators and researchers to accurately measure self-efficacy in and value for programming is important. Although student motivation in subject matter can be measured using self-report…

This 2-year prospective study aimed to examine the predictive role of students' achievement goals (mastery-approach and performance-avoidance) on socioemotional adjustment in high school by assessing the potential mediating contribution of academic motivations. A total of 407 high school students (46% boys) were surveyed each year in Secondary 2…

Learning goal orientation is a prominent motivational construct that has been linked to positive student outcomes. For high-ability students, a lack of mastery learning goals has been theoretically and empirically associated with underachievement. However, longitudinal research examining the development and outcomes of their learning goal…

We examined perceived emotional support and expectations from parents, teachers, and classmates in relation to Mexican American adolescents' (n = 398) social behavior and academic functioning. Results of regression analyses indicated that direct associations between emotional support and expectations differ as a function of source and domain;…

Introduction: The self-regulation of motivation (SRM) is conceptualized as a meta-motivational process that guides students' efforts and persistence when performing tasks. This process regulates students' behavior through strategies that are influenced by motivational beliefs. SRM allows students to motivate themselves and guides their behavior.…

Academic cheating within the middle grades has become a prevalent schooling dilemma for teachers and administrators. Among the various contextual and cognitive factors that promote academic cheating is home-school dissonance, which has been shown to predict the phenomenon among high school students. The current study extends this line of research…

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 national initiative encourages STEM careers to prepare students to succeed in an increasingly competitive economy (National Research Council, 2011). The STEM pipeline is dependent on students' mathematics course-taking trajectories, which are determined once a student enrolls in his/her first Algebra course. Despite efforts to increase access to…

In this study, relationships were examined between students' perception of their cognition, behavior, environment, and motivation. The purpose of the research study was to explore the extent to which 9th and 10th grade students' perception of environment, cognition, and behavior can predict their motivation in Algebra and Geometry courses. A…

The present study advances understanding of (a) the development of achievement goals, (b) the changing association of achievement goals and achievement over time, and (c) the implications of changes in achievement goals for changes in achievement over time. African American and European American adolescents' (N = 588) achievement goals and…

The purpose of this study is to examine whether teachers' perceptions of educational value discontinuity are predictive of the psychological antecedents of academic performance (e.g., academic engagement and academic self-efficacy) during middle school. Educational value discontinuity is defined as the difference between teachers' actual…