The author explored the mathematics efficacy beliefs of 270 South Asian (Indo Canadian) immigrant and Anglo Canadian nonimmigrant Grade 7 students. Self-efficacy beliefs strongly predicted mathematics performance for both cultural groups, but there were differences between the 2 groups in the sources of self-efficacy, the predictiveness of the…

The present study examined whether academic motivations, conceptualized from the stance of self-determination theory, fluctuate over time in a homogeneous or heterogeneous fashion during a school transition. Three objectives were pursued: First, motivational trajectories were studied using the conventional, homogeneous approach. Second, the…

According to expectancy-value theories, increasing the utility value of a learning activity should result in higher motivation and better learning. In contrast, self-determination theory posits that the content of the future goals (intrinsic vs. extrinsic) that enhance the utility value of the learning activity needs to be considered as well.…

Hypothetical vignettes were used to examine the effects of teacher pedagogical skill (good vs. poor), interpersonal caring (caring vs. not), and classroom goal structure (performance vs. mastery) on high school students' judgments about the target of blame for cheating (teacher vs. student), the acceptability of cheating, and the likelihood of…

Earlier research has shown that prior knowledge of psychology is positively associated with course achievement. But are these effects attributable to preexisting differences in general ability or aptitude? The authors administered 2 pretests to 353 students early in an introductory psychology course and obtained measures of general student…

The authors report on a cross-linguistic investigation of the reading skills of 6- to 11-year-old children of English (an opaque orthography) and of Dutch (a transparent orthography). Dutch children were relatively more accurate and faster than English children of the same age at reading words and nonwords and also faster to complete phoneme…

The main purpose of the study reported here was to investigate the relative importance of complexity of syllable structure and task differences in measuring phonological awareness in low-literacy adults. This study is a replication of a study with children conducted by S. A. Stahl and B. A. Murray (1994). Results indicated that the complexity of…

The authors investigated the effects of domain knowledge on online reading among younger and older adults. Individuals were randomly assigned to either a domain-relevant (i.e., high-knowledge) or domain-irrelevant (i.e., low-knowledge) training condition. Two days later, participants read target passages on a computer that drew on information…

Based on an engagement perspective of reading development, we investigated the extent to which an instructional framework of combining motivation support and strategy instruction (Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction--CORI) influenced reading outcomes for third-grade children. In CORI, five motivational practices were integrated with six cognitive…

The Indexical Hypothesis suggests a new method for enhancing children's reading comprehension. Young readers may not consistently "index," or map, words to the objects the words represent. Consequently, these readers fail to derive much meaning from the text. The instructional method involves manipulating toy objects referred to in the text (e.g.,…

This study identified cognitive processes that underlie individual differences in working memory (WM) and mathematical problem-solution accuracy in elementary school children at risk and not at risk for serious math difficulties (SMD). A battery of tests was administered that assessed problem solving, achievement, and cognitive processing in…

This study investigated the developmental dynamics of mathematical performance during children's transition from preschool to Grade 2 and the cognitive antecedents of this development. 194 Finnish children were examined 6 times according to their math performance, twice during each year across a 3-year period. Cognitive antecedents, that is,…

Background: Recent literature has identified that children's performance on cognitive (or problem-solving) tasks can be enhanced when undertaken as a joint activity among pairs of pupils. Performance on this "social" activity will require quality relationships between pupils, leading some researchers to argue that friendships are characterized by…

Background: More empirical work is needed to examine the dimensionality of personal epistemology and relations between those dimensions and motivational and strategic components of self-regulated learning. In particular, there is great need to investigate personal epistemology and its relation to self-regulated learning across cultures and…

Background: Although several studies support the existence of a negative stream effect on lower-ability stream students' academic self-concept, there is not enough longitudinal research evidence to preclude the possibility that the stream effect may only be temporary. In addition, not much is known about the effect of streaming on changes in…