Previous work has examined how messages communicated to students prior to high-stakes exams, that emphasise the importance of avoiding failure for subsequent life trajectory, may be appraised as threatening. In two studies, we extended this work to examine how students may also appraise such messages as challenging or disregard them as being of…

This study addressed predictors of pre-service teachers' opposition toward the practice of educating students with disabilities in mainstream classroom settings--a practice known as inclusion. We tested a hypothesized path model that incorporated social dominance orientation (SDO) and contact as distal predictors, and intergroup anxiety,…

This study tested the effect of a message describing a social norm of egalitarian attitudes and behaviors in an engineering college on male students' attitudes and behavioral intentions surrounding diversity in engineering. Participants were first-semester university students enrolled in four sections of an introductory engineering course in…

A self-determination theory perspective on motivation assumes that basic need support is a prerequisite for motivation, achievement, and well-being in several domains of life. In the present cross-sectional study, a representative sample of 2.594 Norwegian students in their final year of lower secondary education and their first year of upper…

Hispanic students are pursuing higher education more than in previous years and they often represent their family as the first member to attend college (Strage in "Coll Stud J" 33:198-205, 1999). Past educational research has studied the influence of intrinsic motivation on academic achievement in various ethnically diverse elementary,…

Educators worldwide face challenges surrounding academic integrity. The development of honor codes can promote academic integrity, but understanding how and why honor codes affect behavior is critical to their successful implementation. To date, research has not examined how students' "relationship" to an honor code predicts…

Various learning philosophies, such as humanistic, constructivist, and socio-cultural approaches, have accentuated the importance of emotion in learning. In this article, we reviewed these approaches and explored the affective dimensions of learning. We conducted focus group and individual interviews with a group of female students in the…

This study examined the influence of motivation on academic achievement. The theoretical rationale for the study is grounded in bridging two influential yet isolated literatures of motivation: goal setting theory and achievement goal theory. Although it is clear that academic performance should be influenced by assigned learning goals,…

Research is presented on the attributional gender bias: the tendency to generate different attributions (explanations) for female versus male students' performance in math. Whereas boys' successes in math are attributed to ability, girls' successes are attributed to effort; conversely, boys' failures in math are attributed to a…

Some researchers suggest that the way a teacher is perceived during the first encounter with a classroom group resembles, and therefore is predictive of, later classroom processes as perceived by students. This study investigated the degree to which interpersonal ratings (i.e., control and affiliation), given by secondary school students to…

This research tested and extended a laboratory-derived model of the origins of attitude certainty using a real attitude object: Teaching children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In Study 1, an experiment manipulated the amount of information, thought, and consistency of information delivered to pre-service teachers (n = 224)…

Prospective teachers' sense of personal responsibility has not been examined together with their academic optimism, hope, and emotions about teaching in a single study to date. However, to consider hope, academic optimism, and emotions about teaching together with personal responsibility is important to uncover the factors affecting…

Researchers examined associations of parental expectations and parental school relationships with school outcomes among U.S. middle and high school students. Nationally representative data involving families from the National Household Education Surveys were analyzed with structural equation modeling. Measures included interview responses about…

This study investigated the sources of self-efficacy of college students enrolled in a learning frameworks course, whom we identified as underachievers. Through weekly journal entries, the group of underachievers (n = 13) cited the factors that made them feel confident or not confident. Students' responses to open-ended prompts were coded…

Experiencing bullying as a victim is associated with negative health and health behavior outcomes, including substance use, among adolescents. However, understandings of protective factors--factors that enhance adolescents' resilience to the negative consequences of bullying--remain limited. The current study investigates whether teacher…