The self-regulation of attributions, beliefs concerning the causes of outcomes, is explored. An increasing body of research substantiates the idea that effective self-regulation depends on forming positive attributions that promote perceptions of competence and sustain motivation directed toward learning. Self-regulation refers to the process by…

The concept of self-regulation--the process whereby students activate and sustain behaviors and cognitive paths which are systematically oriented toward attainment of learning goals--is increasing in importance among educators. Self-regulation includes activities such as attending to instruction; organizing, coding, and rehearsing information;…

The idea that schooling socialization practices may influence students' self-regulated learning through their effects on attributions and perceived self-efficacy is discussed, focusing on students' beliefs about their abilities. From an attributional perspective, ability is generally viewed as a relatively fixed quality, but researchers have begun…

This article discusses the assessment of self-regulated learning processes as students acquire cognitive skills in specific academic domains. Domain-specific assessment is useful for understanding student learning and for planning instructional activities that help to promote it. Although much psychological research has used general measures of…

In an initial section, this paper presents a review of the literature and discusses the hypothesized relationship between self-efficacy, (defined as personal judgments of how well one can organize and implement behaviors in situations that may contain novel, unpredictable and possibly stressful elements) and achievement behavior. Source of…

This paper reviews the social origins of students' development of self-regulatory skill, with special emphasis on observational learning through peer modeling. A social cognitive perspective on self-regulation is presented. In this view students' academic competence develops initially from social sources of academic skills and subsequently shifts…

This experiment tested the hypothesis that rewards given for progress during competency development promote children's mathematical skill development, percepts of self-efficacy, and interest. Children received didactic instruction in division operations and were offered rewards contingent on their actual progress, rewards for simply participating,…

The present experiment tested the hypothesis that effort attribution given for prior achievement is effective in promoting subsequent achievement behaviors. Forty children drawn from two elementary schools and lacking in subtraction skills received training and opportunities to solve subtraction problems. In the context of training, children…

Psychological procedures change behavior in part by creating and strengthening perceived self-efficacy, which refers to personal judgments of performance capabilities in a given activity. In addition, it has been hypothesized that attributions, or perceived causes of outcomes, exert important effects on self-efficacy. A study investigated how the…

Two experiments investigated the effects of sources of strategy information on children's acquisition and transfer of reading outcomes and strategy use. Children with reading skill deficiencies received comprehension instruction on main ideas. In the first experiment, the final sample comprised 33 students (21 fourth graders, 12 fifth gaders)…