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…

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…

Educational gender gap research tries to explain the differential achievement of boys and girls at secondary school, which manifests in many western countries. Several explanatory frameworks are used for this purpose, such as masculinities theory. In this review article, the history of educational gender gap research in Anglo-Saxon literature and…

We examined how achievement (mastery and performance) and social goals (affiliation, approval, concern, and status) influenced various learning outcomes in two collectivist cultures. Filipino (n = 355) and Hong Kong Chinese (n = 697) secondary students answered the relevant questionnaires. Regression analyses using mastery, performance, and social…

Past research into the consequences of tracking mainly documented on the impact of attending different tracks on students' achievement and behavior. Less attention has been paid to the impact of track positions on teachers' perceptions and expectations regarding students. By means of multi-level analysis of data of 6,545 students in 46…

Research on teachers' judgments of student performance has demonstrated that educational assessments may be biased or may more correctly take the achievements of students into account depending on teachers' motivations while making the judgment. Building on research on social judgment formation the present investigation examined whether the…

This article addresses the issue of bullying and analyzes a set of accounts that were collected from fourteen focus group interviews with 90 secondary school children. The aim of the research was to map out the ways in which young adolescents talk about their social relations at school in relation to home and the ways they construct bullying as a…

Based on social cognitive theory, the purpose of this study is to examine certain social cognitive and demographic factors involved in intrinsic satisfaction amongst secondary school students of different cultural backgrounds in a new migrant-receiving country. Given the role of schools in youth acculturation and adaptation, it is important to…

This study examined the effects of motivation to learn science, science self-beliefs, and science instructional practices on science achievement of 13,985 15-year-old students from 431 schools across Canada. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) analyses, while controlling for student- and school-level demographic characteristics, revealed the…

Previous literature indicates that educational aspirations are an important predictor of achievement at school and beyond. This paper examines the factors that are associated with high educational aspirations. It also looks at the relationship between aspirations and achievement at the General Certificate of Secondary Education in a deprived area…

This paper presents data concerning culturally prescribed gender traits and their influence on bullying/victimization problems and aggressive tendencies from a wide sample of 1,654 Spanish adolescents. The aims of this study were to clarify the effect of masculine traits on male and female secondary students' aggression, and also to explore the…

The importance of performance expectancies for the prediction of regulation of behavior and actual performance has long been established. Building on theories from the field of social cognition, we suggest that the level of performance expectancies, as well as the certainty of the expectancy, have a joint influence on an individual's beliefs and…

Education is highly valued in Confucian Heritage Culture (CHC) countries such as China, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and Korea but the expectations of parents, teachers and students themselves to excel academically can also be a source of intense stress for many students. The "Academic Expectations Stress Inventory" (AESI), developed by Ang…

This article presents the results of a study carried out with the aim to: (1) analyze secondary school students' and their teachers' ideal representations of classroom justice, (2) deepen the topic of students' sense of injustice, and (3) explore the links between students' perceived injustice and their psychological engagement in school, measured…