Many large-scale, school-based interventions have attempted to improve academic performance through promoting students' growth mindset, defined as the belief that one's intellectual ability can increase with practice and time. However, most have shown weak to no effects. Thus, it is important to examine how growth mindset might affect retention…

In this study, the authors tested the effects of Tekster [Texter], a comprehensive strategy-focused writing instruction program, using a switching replication design with three measurement occassions. The program was implemented by fourth, fifth, and sixth grade teachers (N = 76) in 60 general education classrooms in the Netherlands. Students (n =…

Although students' motivational frameworks (entity vs. incremental) have been linked to academic achievement, little is known about how early this link emerges and how motivational frameworks develop in the first place. In a year-long study (student N = 424, Teacher N = 58), we found that, as early as 1st and 2nd grade, children who endorsed an…

Two studies were designed to extend Butler's (2007) model and measure of achievement goals for teaching, to recognize that teaching is an interpersonal endeavor, not just personal endeavor. In Study 1, results from 530 teachers in Israel confirmed the predicted 5-factor model comprising relational goals, whereby teachers aspire to create close and…

Cognitive and affective data for about 200 college students taught by a self-paced testing method were compared with data for students taught by the traditional lecture method. Results corroborate contemporary experimental evidence concerning the determinants of achievement and indicate some advantages of the self-paced method. (Author/RD)

This study investigated the motivational and performance consequences of two features of task-mastery learning structures: retesting opportunities and criterion-referenced grading. College students were assigned either to a norm-referenced (competitive) or a criterion-referenced grading system, and to either a single-test or retest condition.…