This study investigates the predictive influences of expectancies and values that may sustain students' dropout intentions in physics as well as gender differences in students' motivation and intention. Eccles's expectancy-value model was used to frame the study. The academic self-concept (expectancy component) and value components focusing on…

The present study examines the effects of social interactions' situational characteristics, emotions, and personality on self-perceived learning from social interactions at work based on diary and survey data. The sample comprises 43 German vocational education and training (VET) trainees in various apprenticeship programs. During the diary period…

The present study aims to explain the relationship between the need for self-reflection, job-related self-reflection, job-related self-insight, and well-being as well as burnout in student teachers. A cross-sectional study of 607 student teachers in Germany reveals that job-related self-insight, but not job-related self-reflection nor the need for…

Background: Numerous studies have explored pre-service teachers' motivation for choosing teaching as a career and the relations of pre-service teachers' motivation profile membership to long-term consequences. In contrast, little is still known about certain predictors and the more proximal consequences of pre-service teachers' motivation profile…

A positive academic self-concept (ASC) relates to many desirable educational outcomes. Research on which student characteristics relate to the formation of ASC is therefore crucial. To examine the importance of personality for ASC, we investigated the relation between Big Five traits and mean level as well as within-person variability in state…

Young students who speak a different language at home than that spoken in school (i.e., a minority home-language) appear to exhibit a biased reading self-concept. Importantly, this biased reading self-concept may correspond with altered causal pathways between reading self-concept and achievement in minority home-language students. To test this…

By focusing on the domains of math and German, the present study with 200 elementary school children investigated the specific relationships of self-reported grades with academic self-concepts and self-perceptions of effort within the competence-affective separation of academic self-concepts. In addition, possible mediator effects of academic…

Feeling like a different person when speaking different languages has been investigated before and attributed to several linguistic as well as psychological factors. Language proficiency, the context of language acquisition, personality traits, emotional intelligence, and the topic of conversation as well as the interlocutor have been found to…

Reading self-concept is an important predictor of reading comprehension and vice versa. However, the mechanisms that are at work in this relation have yet to be identified. In line with the self-enhancement approach, we propose that in the reading domain, amount of reading, book choice (text difficulty and book length), and intrinsic reading…

Helping students adjust to university life is a critical developmental issue. Using longitudinal data from 1652 German late adolescents, this research tested the effect of initial high-school parent, same-sex, and opposite sex self-concept and its change on university dropout intentions, study stress, and study satisfaction. High-school…

In the present study we investigated which role manipulated (i.e., experimentally induced) and perceived (i.e., self-reported) self-control depletion plays in students' (N = 176 seventh graders) achievement-related experiences and behaviour during a test of English as a foreign language, while controlling for trait self-control. Our successful…

Students' intelligence and self-concept of ability are critical predictors of school achievement. However, studies focusing on the relative importance of both achievement predictors have produced mixed results. To clarify these inconsistencies, the present study investigated whether the relative predictive power of students' intelligence and…

Background: Research on test anxiety of elementary school children has mainly focused on prevalence rates and gender differences. Less work has addressed predictors of test anxiety in elementary school children. According to the control-value theory developed by Pekrun ("Educ Psychol Rev" 18:315-341. doi: 10.1007/s10648-006-9029-9,…

Expectancy-value theory of achievement motivation identifies two classes of beliefs that are important predictors of educational choices and achievement: expectancies and values. It is well known that high achieving peers can have a negative impact on self-concept and other measures of expected success: holding individual achievement constant,…

Drawing on expectancy-value theory, the present study examined the unique contributions of the four major value beliefs and self-concept on achievement, self-reported effort, and teacher-rated behavioral engagement in mathematics. In particular, we examined the multiplicative effects of self-concept and task values on educational outcomes using…