Longitudinal research on students' interest in higher education showed that interest declines throughout the study program. While researchers reported numerous factors explaining interest on the student level, research on the relationship between the lecturer level and students' interest development is considered scarce. This study aimed to…

Gifted underachievers perform worse in school than would be expected based on their high intelligence. Possible causes for underachievement are low motivational dispositions (need for cognition) and metacognitive competences. This study tested the interplay of these variables longitudinally with gifted and non-gifted students from Germany…

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…

Halo effects in teacher judgments, can occur when the assessment of one aspect of a person's achievement is generalised to another aspect of achievement for that same person. We conducted an experimental study in which participants (N = 107) had to grade vignettes of the same student in two different subjects. The first vignette described either a…

The important role of early self-regulation skills has been repeatedly demonstrated in research. However, there is a lack of studies that have simultaneously examined the influence of hot and cool self-regulation skills on school performance and behavior problems in a longitudinal design from preschool to elementary school and controlling…

Cognitive ability and curiosity are significant predictors of academic achievement; yet the processes underlying these relations are not well understood. I drew on ideas from the environmental enrichment hypothesis and the differential preservation hypothesis and hypothesized that epistemic behavior acts as a mediator. Longitudinal data were…

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…

Students' academic achievement is a key predictor of various life outcomes and is commonly used for selection as well as for educational monitoring and accountability. With regard to achievement indicators, a differentiation has traditionally been drawn between grades and standardized tests. There is initial, albeit inconclusive, evidence that…

Fluid intelligence and conscientiousness are important predictors of students' academic performance and competence gains. Although their individual contributions have been widely acknowledged, less is known about their potential interplay. Do students profit disproportionately from being both smart and conscientious? We addressed this question…

Achievement emotions have received increasing attention in research on adolescence and young adulthood, but little is known about these emotions in the early years of schooling. Studies addressing the development of different achievement emotions and their linkages with achievement during these years are largely lacking. The present longitudinal…

It is often assumed by implication that the reasons why teacher education students drop out of their degree courses are different to those in other study programmes. However, based on research on other differences, there is reason to assume that the subject being studied is important, and especially its affiliation to STEM (Science, Technology,…

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…

According to teaching-learning theories, interventions in educational practice require a valid diagnosis of students' learning preconditions. Cognitive dispositions at the beginning of studies are the strongest predictor of knowledge acquisition. In the context of increasing numbers of beginning students with heterogeneous preconditions, valid…

Second chance education (SCE) has been established to offer adults the opportunity to catch up on higher qualifications, for instance the eligibility to study. SCE often suffers from high dropout rates, but little is known about the reasons. This article investigates whether dropout rates depend on family background and age, and if so, why. Data…

More and more students attend private supplementary tutoring to improve their academic achievement. Private tutoring might be understood as a reaction to insufficient instructional quality in school, especially regarding individual support. However, it might also be possible that parents generally see insufficient grades as an indicator of lacking…