This short-term longitudinal study examined antecedents (academic achievement and achievement goal orientations) of undergraduates' cost perceptions, and the relations between cost perceptions and later achievement. Two waves of data were collected in one semester from 86 diverse students enrolled in a general education biology course for…

Given the prevalence of group project assignments in college coursework, it is surprising that the rich literature on achievement goal orientation has been so rarely used to understand students' commitment to an assigned group project and the emotions they associate with group work, especially when they report some degree of group conflict among…

This goal of this study was to develop a measure that captures the three dimensions of youth purpose proposed by Damon, Menon, and Cotton-Bronk (2003). We tested a theoretical model that links youth purpose (comprised of intention, engagement, and prosocial reasoning) with achievement motivation, agency, and civic engagement for a sample of high…

We explore possibilities for placing community college students in math using non-cognitive measures, such as indicators of motivation or students' educational plans. First, we use supplemental administrative data gathered during routine placement testing in a large urban community college district in California to conduct predictive exercises…