The purpose of this study was to investigate (a) the latent profiles that arise from middle and high school students' (N = 1225) reported exposure to information from the four hypothesized sources of self-efficacy; (b) the relationships between these latent profiles and science self-efficacy and science achievement; and (c) the differences in…

In this correlational research, we investigated to what extent achievement goals, in conjunction with need for achievement and fear of failure as well as perceived classroom goal structures, are related to learning strategies among upper elementary school students. After taking into account students' tendency to respond in a socially desirable…

This research aims at examining the role of autonomy support and passion in the persistence of students involved in higher education. In academic settings, autonomy-supportive environments consider students as self-determined individuals who are capable of making choices. In contrast, controlling academic environments impose pressure on students…

Two classroom studies tested whether mastery-approach goals and performance-approach goals nudge students to pursue different learning agendas. Each showed that mastery-approach goals promote an interest-based studying approach in which students allocate study time disproportionately to personally interesting material over duller material. Study 2…

We examined motivational orientations, cognitive-metacognitive strategies, and resource management in predicting academic achievement. Undergraduates (407) completed the Motivated Strategies Learning Questionnaire, Implicit Theories of Intelligence Scale, Achievement Goal Inventory, and self-reported grade point average. A MANCOVA (controlling for…

Using the theoretical framework of achievement goal theory, this study investigated the accuracy of teachers' judgments of their students' motivation. Self-report data were gathered on the mastery, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance goals of 1140 German secondary school students (mean age = 14.24) in five academic subjects (English,…

The aim of this study was to examine students' (N = 579) achievement goal orientation profiles, the temporal stability of these profiles across the transition to upper secondary education, and profile differences in academic well-being (i.e., school value, school burnout, schoolwork engagement, satisfaction with educational choice). By means of…

The self-regulation of motivation represents a key feature of self-regulated learning. Recent studies have documented that students use a variety of strategies to sustain their learning motivation and that most of these strategies have positive effects. However, less is known about how students integrate the various motivational strategies into an…

This study examined whether the good or bad outcomes associated with mastery- and performance-approach achievement goals depend on the extent to which these goals are pursued for self-concordant reasons. A sample of 220 undergraduate students completed measures of achievement goals, goal self-concordance, academic satisfaction, and academic…

Drawing on modern diathesis-stress theories which suggest a multiplicative approach to determine one's personal vulnerability status, we posit that the degree of an individual's vulnerability for using self-handicapping strategies in case of self-threatening events depends on the interaction between different vulnerability and protective factors.…

Counting abilities have been described as determinative precursors for a good development of later arithmetic abilities. Mastery of the stable order, the one-one-correspondence and the cardinality principles can be seen as essential features for the development of counting abilities. Mastery of the counting principles in kindergarten was assessed…

As a maladaptive behavioural outcome, procrastination should correlate with beliefs about ability and achievement goals that are themselves relatively maladaptive. Accordingly, procrastination should be predicted by entity as opposed to incremental implicit theories (i.e., viewing attributes such as ability as relatively fixed vs. malleable,…

The aim of the present study was to identify dominant goal orientation patterns in university students, define their motivational profiles and their reading strategy use. The results of cluster analysis showed that four groups of students could be differentiated according to their goal orientation: mastery, mastery-performance,…