Background: Establishing or preserving single-sex schooling has been widely discussed as a way of bringing more girls into the natural sciences. Aims: We test the assumption that the beneficial effects of single-sex education on girls' self-concept of ability in masculine subjects such as physics are due to the lower accessibility of…

Background: Recent research on achievement motivation has begun to examine the effects of environmental factors affecting students' motivational beliefs and goal tendencies. However, when interpreting and applying the results, individual factors underlying students' different perceptions of their learning environment are often ignored. An implicit…

Background: Consideration of motivation in higher education has often been drawn upon theories and research that were based upon school or workplace studies. Aims: This paper reports an open naturalistic study to better characterize the motivational orientation of students in higher education. Method: Open semi-structured individual interviews…

Background: The mixed findings of previous studies on the nature and effects of performance goals have led to a call for re-examination of the dichotomous framework of achievement goal orientation theory. While the call for a revised achievement goal orientation theory has received considerable discussion in Western studies, it is not clear…

Background: There has been an ongoing debate about the inconsistent effects of heterogeneous ability grouping on students in small group work such as project-based learning. Aim: The present research investigated the roles of group heterogeneity and processes in project-based learning. At the student level, we examined the interaction effect…

Background: After a century of educational psychology, eminent commentators are still lamenting problems besetting the appropriate relating of psychological insights to teaching design, a situation not helped by the persistence of crude assumptions concerning the nature of pedagogical effectiveness. Aims: To propose an analytical or…

Background: Identifying the factors that influence teacher beliefs about teaching children with learning difficulties is important for the success of inclusive education. This study explores the relationship between teachers' role, self-efficacy, attitudes towards disabled people, teaching experience and training, on teachers' attributions for…

Background: Previous research has shown that sophisticated epistemological beliefs exert a positive influence on students' learning strategies and learning outcomes. This gives a clear educational relevance to studies on the development of methods for promoting a change in epistemological beliefs and making them more sophisticated. Aims: To…

Background: Primary-school teachers are expected to detect problems related to language function, but the teachers' evaluations may be heavily influenced by gender and classroom behaviour. Aim: To investigate the relationship between language problems (LPs) and behaviour-emotional problems as rated by primary-school teachers. Methods: All…

Background: Collaborative learning is recognized as an effective learning tool in the classroom. In order to optimize the collaborative learning experience for children within a collaborative partnership, it is important to understand how to match the children by ability level, and whether assigning roles within these dyads is beneficial or not.…

Background: Early, intensive phonological awareness and phonics training is widely held to be beneficial for children with poor phonological awareness. However, most studies have delivered this training separately from children's normal whole-class reading lessons. Aims: We examined whether integrating this training into whole class, mixed-ability…

Background: The literature on the determinants of academic motivation indicates that social and affective processes connected to students' interpersonal relationships are central elements in understanding students' academic motivation and other school-related outcomes. Aims: The aim of this study was to answer the following questions: Does…

Background: The expectancy-value and achievement goal theories are arguably the two most dominant theories of achievement motivation in the contemporary literature. However, very few studies have examined how the constructs derived from both theories are related to deep learning. Moreover, although there is evidence demonstrating the links between…

Background: Transition from comprehensive school to later educational tracks is challenging for many adolescents. The present three-wave longitudinal study conducted in Finland considers this issue from the perspective of school burnout. Background: Transition from comprehensive school to later educational tracks is challenging for many…

Background: Low levels of literacy and high levels of behaviour problems in middle childhood often co-occur. These persistent difficulties pose a risk to academic and social development, leading to social exclusion in adulthood. Although parent-training programmes have been shown to be effective in enabling parents to support their children's…