Abundant research in social psychology shows human behaviour is guided by beliefs through two pathways, a deliberate and automatic pathway. Research on student motivation has thus far focused mostly on the deliberate pathway and consequently almost exclusively relied on explicit measures (i.e. self-reports of motivation) to assess student…

Academic self-efficacy is a crucial predictor of first-year university study success, which makes it a key intended outcome of pre-university education. Students with high academic self-efficacy at the end of secondary education likely experience a better transition to university. This study aimed to investigate which factors relate to Dutch…

This study examined to what extent motives for behavior differentiated between popular, accepted, and rejected adolescents. Based on goal-framing theory, three types of motives were distinguished: hedonic (aimed at short-term gratification), instrumental (aimed at improvement of one's situation), and normative (aimed at acting in accordance with…

The aims of the present study were (1) to identify to what extent school motivation and school commitment contributed to the explanation of students' academic achievement in addition to the effect of students' cognitive capacities, (2) to find out whether school commitment mediated the relation between school motivation and academic achievement,…

The time students invest in their studies and their resulting achievement is partly dependent on curriculum characteristics. Degree programmes differ greatly with respect to how the curriculum is organized, for example in the type (e.g. lectures, practicals) and the number of classes. The focus of this study is on the relationships between…

In this study we investigate the influence of ethnic differences on student motivation when learning from formative feedback. Interpersonal teacher behavior and student motivational needs are used to explain the effects of assessment for learning on intrinsic motivation by comparing students from different ethnic backgrounds. The final study's…

Central in this study is the role of student variables and the fit between secondary education and university education in the explanation of first-year student achievement. The fit between two levels of education can be defined in different ways. In this study the focus is on four fit-aspects: appropriateness of expectations, and the degree to…

This paper discusses two methodological issues regarding the analysis of longitudinal data using structural equation modeling that emerged during the reconsideration of the analysis of a recent study on the relationship between academic motivation and language achievement in elementary education [Stoel R.D., Peetsma, T.T.D. and Roeleveld, J.…

Higher education students interest in their subject has been found to clearly decrease during the first year of their studies in the Netherlands. This decrease is much smaller for students in the second year, and even turns into an increase in higher years. The loss of interest after enrolment in higher education has also been found in…

Background: Cross-cultural research on minority school achievement yields mixed findings on the motivational impact of future goal setting for students from disadvantaged minority groups. Relevant and recent motivational research, integrating Future Time Perspective Theory with Self-Determination Theory, has not yet been validated among minority…