The more people believe in a just world (BJW) in which they get what they deserve, the more they are motivated to preserve a just world by ones' just behavior. Consequently, we expected school students with a strong BJW to show less deviant behavior as cheating or delinquency. The mediating role of teacher justice was also examined. Questionnaire…

Professional teachers at first stage of secondary school were asked to assess the relative weights of five dimensions that in Italy must be considered when the final grades of students are decided. The teachers were also asked to give an overall evaluation of two samples of "typical" (i.e., students who record similar performances on all…

This article reports two studies that aim at further distinguishing intellectual styles from abilities by taking into account the confounding effects of age and gender on the relationship between these two constructs. Two independent groups of secondary school students responded to the "Thinking Styles Inventory-Revised" and took the…

The production of written syntheses, which requires reading various sources and integrating information from these sources into one's own text, has been characterised as a potentially useful task for promoting constructive learning. This article describes research aimed at examining and characterising written syntheses and the processes involved…

This study aims to advance insight into the relationship between teacher education and graduates' intended and actual entrance into the teaching profession. Moreover, it indicates how this relationship varies between teacher training for primary education (i.e., programs for class teachers-to-be) and teacher training for secondary education (i.e.,…

The present study examined psychosocial adjustment in the following four groups of students: victims, bullies, bully/victims and a control group of adolescents not involved in bullying or victimization problems. Psychosocial adjustment was measured considering as indicators: level of self-esteem, depressive symptomatology, perceived stress,…

Division-With-Remainder (DWR) problems are particularly complex, as suggested in many studies. The purpose of this work was to establish whether students' difficulties in DWR problems came from an inadequate initial representation or from an inadequate final interpretation of the numerical answers, and whether remainders could be grouped into two…

In this study we investigated the effects of two treatments supplementing students' (16 to 18 years of age and in pre-university education) regular course in economics. One treatment, labelled concept treatment, aimed at the solidification of the students' knowledge about economic concepts and their interrelations. The other treatment, labeled…

The present paper offers an exploration of the role achievement values play in the generation of mathematical achievement as measured in school grades and test scores. Based on a comparative study of 1665 German, Israeli, and Canadian 14-year-olds two hypotheses are tested. First, it is assumed that achievement value preferences have a dual role…

What kind of developmental potential is present in elementary schoolchildren but hindered by the traditional type of education? Half a century ago Daniel El'konin and Vasili Davydov, the leaders of Russian Vygotskian educational psychology started answering this question. They suggested that reflection is a basic human ability and it can be…

The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a package of activities, known as "Portfolio", on cognitive functioning, self-regulation, and academic achievement. The study was carried out with a group of 40 students from Compulsory Secondary Education (mean age 13 years old) during 120 hours distributed over two school years. A…