Unscaffolded problem-solving before receiving instruction can give students opportunities to entertain their exploratory hypotheses at the expense of experiencing initial failures. Prior literature has argued for the efficacy of such preparatory activities in preparing students to learn from instruction. Despite growing understanding of the…

In the present study, we compared the extent to which linguistic comprehension (vocabulary and listening comprehension) and word reading explain reading comprehension differentially for English learners (ELs) and non-ELs with reading difficulties. We also investigated whether different mechanisms of reading comprehension failure exist for each…

This article aims to enhance understanding of the nomological network of expectancy of success beliefs related to mathematics. To this end, the paper uses the expectancy-value, regulatory focus, and regulatory mode theoretical frameworks and investigates 3 key classes of motivation predictors: (a) General motivation predispositions that center on…

Self-handicapping represents a frequently used strategy for regulating the threat to self-esteem elicited by the fear of failing in academic achievement settings. Several studies have documented negative associations between self-handicapping and different educational outcomes, inter alia academic achievement. However, studies on the relation…

A classic distinction in the literature on achievement and motivation is between fear of failure and success orientations. From the perspective of self-worth theory, these motives are not bipolar constructs but dimensions that interact in ways that make some students particularly vulnerable to underachievement and disengagement from school. The…

The present research examined the nature of stability and change in achievement goal endorsement over time, using 4 complementary data-analytic approaches (differential continuity, mean-level change, individual-level change, and ipsative continuity). Three longitudinal studies were conducted in college classrooms; in each study, achievement goals…

School transitions and educational innovations confront students with changes in their learning environment. Though expectations are known to influence perceptions and motivation, which, in turn, influence the effectiveness of any situation, students' expectations for a new learning environment have received little attention. This longitudinal…

The authors conducted a grounded theory study of academic procrastination to explore adaptive and maladaptive aspects of procrastination and to help guide future empirical research. They discuss previous research on the definition and dimensionality of procrastination and describe the study in which interview data were collected in 4 stages,…

The authors identified several specific problems with the measurement of achievement goals in the current literature and illustrated these problems, focusing primarily on A. J. Elliot and H. A. McGregor's (2001) Achievement Goal Questionnaire (AGQ). They attended to these problems by creating the AGQ-Revised and conducting a study that examined…

Father-present and father-absent lower class Black kindergarteners were tested in school readiness, and two years later in academic achievement. Predictions of academic deficits due to early and continuing parental absence, as derived from Zajonc's and Markus's confluence model, were only partially supported. (Author/GDC)

When correlations between actual university classroom cheating behavior (multiple-choice answer copying) and pretest estimates of success, confidence, and test importance were studied answer copying correlated positively with estimates of success. Confidence in these estimates of success also correlated positively with answer copying, while…

In 3 experiments, 123, 70, and 60 college students indicated that others might reduce effort in a situation where they expect failure as a strategy to protect their perceptions of ability, but that they themselves would not. Reduced effort when threatened by failure may not be intentional. (SLD)

Investigates 1st-graders' ability to select the appropriate strategy for constructing a building from memory versus listening to instructions that included an unfamiliar word. Results reveal children's strategy selections: preceded any construction attempts; followed failed construction attempts; or followed verbal feedback about failures.…

Two experiments show that performance impairment after failure can occur in different ways, depending on the goals, values, self-perception, sex, presence of an observer, and other attributional tendencies of the individual responding to that failure. (JAZ)