Background: Past studies have shown significant associations between students' conceptions of learning science and their science learning self-efficacy. However, in most of the studies, students' science learning self-efficacy has often been measured by a singular scale. Purpose: Extending the findings of these studies, the present study adopted a…

Frame of reference theory (Marsh, 1990) proclaims that students make both internal ability comparisons across academic domains and external ability comparisons relative to peers in determining academic self-concept. The validation of this theory with academically able students seems crucial to their appropriate placement in specialized program…

This research summary is said to attempt to solve some of the documented limitations in the self-concept literature by analyzing racial variations in a causal model of the formation of a specific component of self related to the "school learning experience"--academic self-concept. The data for this research came from a larger study of the…

This study examined students' active roles in constructing knowledge when learning new information in the domain of biological evolution. A computer-based connectionist methodology was developed to provide a way to present students with new information while the experimenter provides probe statements congruent with or contradictory to the…