Student self-efficacy, their confidence to successfully perform a task, is positively related to course performance. Students with high self-efficacy for a task are more motivated toward that task. Yet few studies have measured students' self-efficacy and motivation levels after exams are returned in introductory biology classes or studied how…

Individual differences are important predictors of academic success. A sense of purpose in life is gaining increasing attention as a key individual difference factor to foster in university students. The current study examined whether a sense of purpose in life, a dispositional tendency to pursue goals and activities in line with one's overarching…

Students' engagement in class stems from academic and social motivations, which can be expressed through their academic and social achievement goals. Using a person-centered approach, we investigated the configurations of academic and social achievement goals and their relevance for aspects of students' academic (achievement, self-concept, goal…

The successful treatment of test anxiety treatment requires an understanding of the unique barriers and challenges faced by test-anxious students. Therefore, the current study utilized a combination of person-centered and qualitative methods to investigate the existence of unique subpopulations or subtypes of test-anxious students within Turkish…

Background: Implicit theories are important belief systems that influence an individual's motivation and behaviour. In academic contexts, domain-general implicit theories of ability (e.g., intelligence) and their relation to self-regulated learning (SRL) have been examined. Aims: In this study, we followed a domain-specific approach and first…

Based on the self-system model of motivational development, we examined the mediating role of school engagement, including cognitive engagement and behavioral engagement, in accounting for the relation between mastery goal orientations and subjective well-being in school among elementary school students. A total of 974 Chinese children (440…

This article explores the sources of student dispositions toward rhetorical approaches to first-year writing instruction through a case study of Lora, a particularly motivated writing student. The study traces Lora's performance and development of her identity through the imparting of personally meaningful objectives like "standing out"…

Drawing on the assumptions of control-value theory (CVT), the current study examined whether the four facets of test anxiety (emotionality, worry, interference, lack of confidence) serve as intervening variables between learners' characteristics (performance-approach goals, mastery experiences) and learning behaviour (perseverance and diligence),…

The current study investigated the impact of manipulating reading strategy, reading the questions first (QF) or the passage first (PF), during a reading comprehension test, and we explored how reading strategy was related to student characteristics. Participants' eye movements were monitored as they read 12 passages and answered multiple-choice…

In the Spring of 2020, many universities moved all of the courses online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The current study was designed to determine if student goal orientations would influence how they responded to the shutdown of their university. Specifically, we were interested in whether the types of academic goals students set might influence…

The study was designed to test the impact of study interests on achievement, considering the mediating role of future time perspective and basic positive affect (attentiveness, joviality and self-assurance). A total of 675 Italian students attending 10th and 11th grade of high school (F = 342, 50.7%) were involved in the current study. Students'…

Although learner characteristics have been identified as important moderator variables for feedback effectiveness, the question of why learners benefit differently from feedback has only received limited attention. In this study, we investigated: (1) whether learners' dominant goal orientation moderated the effects of computer-based elaborated…

The present investigation examined the role of teachers' instructional support (student reports of relevance, organization and clarity, feedback-feedforward) in predicting students' growth goal setting and, in turn, the roles of instructional support and growth goal setting in predicting students' academic engagement (perseverance, aspirations,…

In the current study, it is aimed to determine the correlation between cognitive flexibility levels and goal orientation levels of the students who are preparing for special talent exams for sports, and to compare these in terms of various demographics. The study group of the research consists of students (n=351) preparing for special talent exams…

Students' goal strivings are known to be connected with important outcomes, both academically and with regard to individual well-being. In spite of their importance, our knowledge of factors contributing to their early development is rather limited. In this longitudinal study on school beginners (N = 212), we focused on the interrelationships…