Digital badges have long been assumed to possess motivational qualities that could encourage learners to engage with learning content. However, prior studies have found the effects of badges to be complex, differing by learner, type of badge, and potentially other factors. Qualitative reports suggest that individuals' perceptions of digital badges…

This study examined the unique and interactive role of students' quality of motivation, as defined in self-determination theory, and their mindsets about intelligence, as conceptualized in Dweck's framework, in predicting a variety of learning outcomes (engagement, learning strategies, persistence, procrastination, and test anxiety) and…

Academic self-concept and achievement have been found to be reciprocally related across time. However, existing research has focused on self-concept and achievement scores that have been averaged over long time-periods. For the first time, the present study examined intraindividual (within-person) relations between momentary (state) self-concept…

There are consistent correlations between mathematics achievement, attitudes, and anxiety, but the longitudinal relations among these constructs are not well understood nor are sex differences in these relations. To address this gap, mathematics achievement, attitudes, and anxiety were longitudinally assessed for 342 (169 boys) adolescents from…

Educational science has consistently examined what drives adolescents to aspire to occupations in math-related fields -- and which factors, such as gender stereotypes, may drive them away. In this study, we utilized a large longitudinal data set (N = 1,092) to test whether past grades, gender, and the math level of mothers' and fathers'…

Teacher-report is commonly used to assess executive functions (EFs) in schools, but teachers' perceptions of EF skills may be biased by students' demographic characteristics. In this short-term longitudinal study, we assessed whether students' gender, ethnicity, and English language learner (ELL) status predicted teachers' reports of students'…

The purpose of this replication study was to provide replication evidence not currently available of the effects of a research-based mathematics program, schema-based instruction, on the mathematical problem-solving performance of 7th-grade students. The replication was implemented in 36 schools in 5 districts; 59 mathematics teachers and their…

Fraction arithmetic facility is fundamental to learning more advanced math topics. However, attaining the ability to add and subtract fractions is hard for many students. The present longitudinal study examined students' growth on simple addition and subtraction word problems between fourth and sixth grades (N = 536). Latent class growth analyses…

This study seeks to identify the configurations of classroom teaching practices, defined based on the classroom goal structures (mastery-approach, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance) and social climate (academic support, emotional support, mutual respect, and task-related interactions) to which a sample of 1,453 seventh graders…

It is unknown how multiple components of on-task regulation of learning affect task performance in school children. This research aimed to acquire insights into the interrelations between children's metacognitive monitoring, regulation of learning, and task performance. Three components of on-task regulation of learning were investigated:…

Prior research has found that student achievement is positively related to students' social standing in class. However, negative stereotypes about high academic achievers prevail among secondary school students, suggesting that higher achievers might be less well-integrated socially. These stereotypes especially target academically high-achieving…

Social dominance goals have been conceptualized as orientations toward powerful and prominent positions in the peer group. Although previous studies have identified social dominance goals as one of the main motivations behind bullying, few studies have disentangled the time-invariant (average level) from the time-varying (year-to-year) effects of…

The study tested the hypothesis that there are sex differences in the pathways to mathematical development. Three-hundred and 42 adolescents (169 boys) were assessed in various mathematics areas from arithmetic fluency to algebra across 6th to 9th grade, inclusive, and completed a battery of working memory, spatial, and intelligence measures in…

A pretest-training-posttest design assessed whether training to improve spatial skills also improved mathematics performance in elementary-aged children. First grade students (mean age = 7 years, n = 134) and sixth grade students (mean age = 12 years, n = 124) completed training in 1 of 2 spatial skills--spatial visualization or form…

Brief, targeted self-affirmation writing exercises have recently been offered as a way to reduce racial achievement gaps, but evidence about their effects in educational settings is mixed, leaving ambiguity about the likely benefits of these strategies if implemented broadly. A key limitation in interpreting these mixed results is that they come…