Understanding students' learning dispositions has been a focus for research in education for many years. A range of alternative approaches to conceptualising and measuring this broad construct have been developed. Traditional psychometric measures aim to produce scales that satisfy the requirements for research; however, such measures have an…

In the context of 7,637 high school students, the present study explored an hypothesized formulation of academic courage (defined as perseverance in the face of academic difficulty and fear) and its role in predicting academic performance (literacy and arithmetic) and various academic engagement measures (planning, task management,…

Drawing from the contributions of vocational psychology, this study examined school engagement as a mediator of academic performance through the effects of career preparation (career planning, career decision-making self-efficacy), parental career support, and teacher support among diverse urban youth in middle school and high school (N = 285).…

This study's purpose is to examine the existing school climate literature in an attempt to constitute its definition from a historical context and to create a valid and reliable student-reported school climate instrument. Five historically common school climate domains and five measurement tools were identified, combined, and previewed by the…

Background: Students' academic self-concepts are known to be domain specific. Researchers have also identified two related components of self-concept:cognitive (how competent students feel about a subject domain) and affective (their interest in the subject). This paper examines whether both components are domain specific. Research has also shown…