Evidence for cognitive benefits of simulated versus physical experiments is unclear. Seventh grade participants (n = 147) reported their understanding of two simple pendulum problems (1) before conducting an experiment, (2) immediately following experimentation, and (3) after a 12-week delay. "Problem type" was manipulated within…

Fostering lifelong learning (LLL) is a topic of high relevance for current educational policy. School lays the cornerstone for the key components of LLL, specifically persistent motivation to learn and self-regulated learning behavior. The present study investigated the impact of classroom instruction variables on concrete determinants for these…

Little is known about the association of classroom characteristics with adolescent truancy. A critical question is whether high achievement standards, high workload, and fast pace protect against or increase adolescent truancy. In this study, self-reports from 3491 Swiss grade 7, grade 8 and grade 9 students in 202 classes were used to predict…

Two experiments explored concept map construction as a useful intervention to improve metacomprehension accuracy among 7th grade students. In the first experiment, metacomprehension was marginally better for a concept mapping group than for a rereading group. In the second experiment, metacomprehension accuracy was significantly greater for a…

This study investigated the relations between teachers' pedagogical beliefs and students' self-reported engagement in learning from texts with instructional pictures. Participants were the biology, geography, and German teachers of 46 classes (Grades 5-8) and their students. Teachers' instructional behaviors and students' engagement in learning…

The purpose of this study was to investigate secondary school students' unmediated peer assessment skills. Specifically, 36 seventh graders, without receiving any kind of support, were anonymously assigned to reciprocally assess their peers' science web-portfolios. Additionally, students' attitudes towards and intentions about the use of…

This research aimed at identifying unique effects of reading motivation on reading performance when controlling for cognitive skills, familial, and demographic background. We drew upon a longitudinal sample of N = 1508 secondary school students from 5th to 8th grade. Two types of intrinsic reading motivation (reading enjoyment, reading for…

The present study regarded the self-regulated vs. not-self-regulated function and the indirect vs. direct (i.e., polite vs. impolite) linguistic form of middle school students' requests for help. Natural data (149 requests were sent via an online homework-help forum by French-speaking seventh to ninth graders) was used. Nearly 60% of the requests…

Two experiments investigated primary and secondary school students' Web menu selection strategies using simulated Web search tasks. It was hypothesized that students' selections of websites depend on their perception and integration of multiple relevance cues. More specifically, students should be able to disentangle superficial cues (e.g.,…

This study investigated the effectiveness of an instructional program (schema-based instruction, SBI) designed to teach 7th graders how to comprehend and solve proportion problems involving ratios/rates, scale drawings, and percents. The SBI program emphasized the underlying mathematical structure of problems via schematic diagrams, focused on a…

The aim of this study was to improve 7th- and 8th-grade students' (N = 83) compare-contrast reports when writing from sources. An instructional unit was designed and implemented for this purpose. It focused on increasing students' knowledge of compare-contrast text structure and on having students memorize and use a table to plan the structure of…

The effectiveness of mixed sensory mode presentation for beginning and experienced learners of Chinese characters as second language was investigated. Experiment 1 found that inexperienced 7th graders performed better on meaning recall in the mixed visual-audio mode than the visual mode presentation, but the superiority of these two formats was…

The effect of Chinese students' perceived test value on test performance was examined with motivational and metacognitive regulation during test preparation as mediating constructs. Participants were 7th (N = 326) and 11th graders (N = 391) in China. Two path models were examined. Students' perceived test value had a significant direct effect on…

This study examined a new achievement-goal approach to teacher motivation by testing the predictions that mastery and ability-avoidance goals for teaching would predict students' reports of teacher support for and inhibition of question asking and help seeking, as well as students' help seeking and cheating. Surveys were completed by 53 teachers…

Even though marks in different subjects are substantially correlated, the corresponding self-concepts often display a very weak association. The ''Internal-External Frame of Reference Model'' (I/E-model; Marsh, H. W. (1986). Verbal and math self-concepts: an internal/external frame of reference model. "American Educational Research Journal, 23,"…