A central goal of the learning sciences is to discover principles that determine the optimal amount of instructional assistance to support robust learning (Koedinger & Aleven, 2007). We examined learning outcomes from providing and withholding stepwise instructional explanations as students studied worked examples and solved physics problems. We…

Addressing a drawback in current research on computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL), this study investigated the influence of motivation on learning activities and knowledge acquisition during CSCL. Participants' (N = 200 university students) task was to develop a handout for which they had first an individual preparing phase followed by…

The influence of achievement goals and social goals on help-seeking from peers in an academic context was examined in two studies. A total of 551 high school students participated in the two studies. The results across the studies demonstrated strong convergence, revealing that mastery-approach, mastery-avoidance, and friendship-approach goals…

The article provides a theoretical extension of the goal orientation approach for teaching by proposing three different competence facets of learning goals and four types of addressees for performance approach and avoidance goals. On the basis of responses from 495 teacher trainees and 224 in-service teachers, the development and validation of an…

Students (N=302) in Chinese elementary schools were assessed regarding their academic delay of gratification (ADOG) and reported the time they devoted to non-school study and playtime during an extended interval prior to taking a high-stakes final exam. Students high compared those low in ADOG were more likely to spend time studying and less time…

This study examined whether students with different achievement goal orientation profiles differ in terms of subjective well-being (i.e., self-esteem, depressive symptoms, school-related burnout, and educational goal appraisals). Six groups of students with unique motivational profiles were identified. Observed differences in subjective well-being…

This study aimed at investigating the relations between students' strategic behaviour during problem solving, task performance and domain-specific self-concept. A total of 167 first- and second-graders were individually examined in tasks involving cubes assembly and in academic self-concept in mathematics. Students' cognitive, metacognitive, and…

The focus of this special issue is on the cognitive load underlying processes of interactive knowledge construction in a wide range of instructional multimedia platforms. Multimedia comprehension involves the parallel processing of auditory-verbal and visual-pictorial channels within working memory. By means of integrating multimodal information,…

Goal orientations in a classroom context were studied through interviews with 17 sixth graders taught by 6 different teachers. The emergence of seven distinct types of goals reveals that a variety of motives directs students' activities in the classroom. The usefulness of the methodological approach is demonstrated. (SLD)

The study of relationships between action control, motivation control, perceptions of course directions, and students' goals for 92 Australian undergraduates revealed different patterns for direction and effort and changing patterns from task on-set to off-set. Overall higher levels of effort and performance appear to require positive appraisals…

One hundred thirty-seven students in 12th grade physics classes participated in a quasi-experimental study comparing the jigsaw classroom method of cooperative instruction with traditional direct instruction. While no differences were found between the two conditions for physics achievement gains, the results revealed differences in students'…