Learner self-efficacy,goal orientation,and academic achievement: exploring mediating and moderating relationships

ABSTRACT

Within the context of Pintrich’s self-regulated learning model, recent reviews of the literature show that motivational factors are the strongest predictors of academic performance. Even so, gaps remain in terms of which goal orientation constructs area most strongly related to performance, and whether academic self-efficacy is involved in such relationships, either as mediator or moderator. This study addresses these gaps using a sample of 478 university students; 409 females aged 17–62 (M?=?23.28, SD?=?7.22) and 69 males, aged 18–47 (M?=?22.5, SD?=?6.31). Analyses revealed that academic self-efficacy (ASE) mediated relationships between both mastery and performance-approach goal orientation with achievement, though the mediation effect was larger for the relationship involving mastery approach goal orientation. ASE did not moderate the relationship between performance-approach goal orientation and achievement. Findings suggest teaching programmes should foster learning environments that encourage persistence and effort when learning, and consider how course delivery and feedback can enhance academic self-efficacy, regardless of the goal orientation adopted by students.     

Family adversity,positive peer relationships,and children's externalizing behavior: a longitudinal perspective on risk and resilience

Peer acceptance and friendships were examined as moderators in the link between family adversity and child externalizing behavioral problems. Data on family adversity (i.e., ecological disadvantage, violent marital conflict, and harsh discipline) and child temperament and social information processing were collected during home visits from 585 families with 5-year-old children. Children's peer acceptance, friendship, and friends' aggressiveness were assessed with sociometric methods in kindergarten and grade 1. Teachers provided ratings of children's externalizing behavior problems in grade 2. Peer acceptance served as a moderator for all three measures of family adversity, and friendship served as a moderator for harsh discipline. Examination of regression slopes indicated that family adversity was not significantly associated with child externalizing behavior at high levels of positive peer relationships. These moderating effects generally were not qualified by child gender, ethnicity, or friends' aggressiveness, nor were they accounted for by child temperament or social information-processing patterns. The need for process-oriented studies of risk and protective factors is stressed.     

Developmental patterns of children's shyness: Relations with physiological,emotional, and regulatory responses to being treated unfairly

The dysregulation of social fear has been widely studied in children's shyness, but we know little about how shy children regulate during unfair treatment. We first characterized developmental patterns of children's shyness (N = 304, n_girls = 153; 74% White, 26% Other) across 2 (M_age = 2.07), 3 (M_age = 3.08), 4 (M_age = 4.08), and 6 (M_age = 6.58) years of age. Data collection occurred from 2007 to 2014. At age 6, the high stable group had higher cardiac vagal withdrawal and lower expressed sadness and approach-related regulatory strategy than the low stable group when being treated unfairly. Although shy children may be more physiologically impacted by being treated unfairly, they may mask their sadness to signal appeasement.     

An experimental, observational investigation of children's responses to peer provocation: developmental and gender differences in middle childhood

The primary goal of this research was to use an experimental, observational method to study the development of anger expression during middle childhood. Eight-, 10-, and 12-year-old girls and boys (N = 382) were observed during a laboratory play session that was provoking in two ways: Participants lost a computer game they were playing for a desirable prize, and their play partner was a same-age, same-gender confederate actor who taunted them. Children's responses to the provoking play sessions--facial expressions, verbalizations, and gestures--were reliably coded. Overall, children in these age groups maintained a remarkable degree of composure. Girls made fewer negative comments than boys did, and fewer negative gestures. Older children maintained more neutral facial expressions, made fewer gestures, and were more likely to remain silent when provoked. When they spoke, older children made fewer negative comments, fewer remarks about the game, and fewer positive comments about themselves or the actor.     

Enhancing peer acceptance of children with learning difficulties: classroom goal orientation and effects of a storytelling programme with drama techniques

Peer acceptance is an important facilitator for the success of inclusive education. The aim of the current study is twofold: (1) to examine how classroom goal orientation is associated with children’s acceptance of peers with learning difficulties; and (2) to evaluate the effectiveness of a storytelling programme with drama techniques on children’s acceptance of peers with learning difficulties. The participants were 86 Grade 3 students from a Hong Kong primary school, randomly assigned to an experimental group (n = 45) and a control group (n = 41). The findings indicated that the more the students perceived that their classroom was performance-approach oriented, the less they would accept their peers with learning difficulties in doing things together. After the intervention, the students in the experimental condition, compared to their counterparts in the control group, were more likely to render financial assistance and have affective acceptance to their peers with learning difficulties.     

Susceptibility to peer influence during middle school: Links with social support,peer harassment,and gender

The present study explores concurrent relations between social support, gender, susceptibility to peer influence, and peer-based aggression and harassment in a socioeconomically and racially diverse sample of 774 seventh and eighth grade students. Results indicate that students perceiving lower support from their family or school were relatively more likely to be highly susceptible to peer influence, and to have friends who they believed were also highly susceptible to peer influence. Further, higher susceptibility to peer influence was associated with increased involvement in relational aggression and sexual harassment, both as a perpetrator and as a victim. Gender moderation effects were also found. The negative association of school support and susceptibility to peer influence was found greater in girls than boys. Girls who were highly susceptible to peer influence, or who had friends who were highly susceptible, had a relatively greater risk for involvement in relational aggression and sexual harassment, as compared with boys. Implications of these results for educators and school-based mental health professionals are discussed, and suggestions for future research are offered.     

Observational,physiological, and self-report measures of children's anger: relations to reactive versus proactive aggression

The goal of this study was to examine the relations of reactive versus proactive aggression to children's anger, as assessed using observational, physiological, and self-report measures. Anger was hypothesized to be related to reactive aggression, but not to proactive aggression. Children (N = 272 second-grade boys and girls) participated in a procedure in which they lost a board game and prize to a confederate who cheated. Skin conductance reactivity and heart rate reactivity were measured throughout the procedure. Following the interaction, children viewed a videotape of the game and self-reported on their level of anger after each turn of the game. Observational coding of children's angry facial expressions and angry nonverbal behaviors was conducted. Reactive aggression, but not proactive aggression, was positively related to skin conductance reactivity and angry nonverbal behaviors, both at an aggregated level and in terms of rate of increase over the time span of the game.     

Young children's ability to infer spatial relationships: evidence from a large, familiar environment

Young (mean age = 3-9) and old (mean age = 5-0) nursery school children were tested on their ability to infer spatial relationships in a large, familiar environment. Each child in the younger group was matched to a child of the same sex in the older group who had been attending the nursery school for the same number of months. Subjects were taken to 3 different locations in their nursery school and were asked to point to 5 targets on the school grounds. Older children were more accurate than younger children on nursery school targets, but children's spatial representations were relatively nonintegrated at both age levels. Consistent sex differences in favor of males were discussed in the context of a new framework that could potentially explain the appearance of sex differences on spatial tasks conducted in large-scale environments. It was concluded that very young children have difficulty inferring spatial relationships, even in a large, familiar environment. This difficulty seems to be due to a relative lack of symbolic capacity.     

"They like me, they like me not": popularity and adolescents' perceptions of acceptance predicting social functioning over time

This study examined the dual roles of adolescents' perceptions of social acceptance and sociometric popularity in predicting relative changes over time in adolescents' social functioning. Observational, self-report, and peer report data were obtained from 164 adolescents who were interviewed at age 13 years and then again at age 14 years, as well as their same-sex close friends. Adolescents who felt positively about their own social standing fared well over time, regardless of their level of sociometric popularity. Further, low popularity was particularly problematic for adolescents who failed to see themselves as fitting in. Results suggest that during adolescence, when it becomes increasingly possible for teens to choose their own social niches, it is possible to be socially successful without being broadly popular.     

Children''s reactions to cooperative group work: a strategy for enhancing peer relationships among bullies, victims and bystanders

This investigation increases our understanding of the interpersonal interactions that take place during co-operative group work (CGW) among children nominated by their peers as bullies, victims and bystanders. Using the method of Interpersonal Process Recall (IPR), children were given the opportunity to explore their own and others' feelings and actions during video replays of co-operative group work at two time points over an eight-month period, and to share their emotional responses with other members of the group. The study indicated that CGW had an impact on the expression of some emotions. At Time 1, bystanders expressed more enjoyment of CGW than either bullies or victims; at Time 2, these differences had disappeared. However, the tendency of victims to deny their feelings in comparison to bullies and bystanders remained. The implications for educational practice are discussed.     

Teachers’ workplace well-being: Exploring a process model of goal orientation,coping behavior,engagement, and burnout

The current research integrated components of the transactional model of stress and coping with self-worth and goal theories to examine a model where (a) teachers’ goal orientation (as indicated by mastery and failure avoidance) was hypothesized to predict their teaching coping strategies (as indicated by problem- and emotion-focused coping) and (b) teaching coping was hypothesized to predict occupational well-being (as indicated by engagement and burnout). A longitudinal sample of 430 teachers took part in the research. With the structural equation model suggesting an acceptable fit to the data, findings generally supported hypotheses. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Reading gender: a feminist,queer approach to children's literature and children's discursive agency

Children's literature helps young people make sense of gender. However, while books offer children the imaginative ability to create their own worlds, normative gender can manifest in characters and stories. The study described in this article draws upon ‘disruptive’ storytimes with 114 preschool children, interviews with 20 parents and staff, and observations at 20 preschools. Employing a feminist, queer approach, I develop two derivative books that switch a boy-hero for a girl and vice versa. These books are read to children in educational settings. This method interrogates gendered characters and stories’ attachments to such concepts as love, acceptance, bodily agency, and adventure. Results show how children interact with these characters and stories and how they use categorisation and narrative construction to make sense of gender. I focus on the gender discourses at play and moments of childhood discursive agency. Themes include literature, doing and being, positioning, bodies, and feminist tales.     

Building a space to dream: Supporting indigenous children's survivance through community-engaged social and emotional learning

Indigenous communities practice survivance and challenge social and political systems to support their children's identity and well-being. Grounded in transformative social-emotional learning (SEL) and tribal critical race theory, this 3-year community-based participatory research study (2019–2021) examined how a SEL program co-created with an Indigenous community in Flathead Nation in Montana supports anti-racism and anti-colonialism among Indigenous children. Critical reflexivity and thematic analyses of Community Advisory Board meetings and journals written by 60 students (M_age = 10.3, SD = 1.45; 47% girls; 60% Native American) during the SEL program revealed themes on Indigenous identity, belonging, wellness, and colonialism. These results shed light on challenging the racist and colonial roots of education to support Indigenous children's survivance and social-emotional well-being.     

Motivation and performance within a collaborative computer-based modeling task: Relations between students’ achievement goal orientation,self-efficacy,cognitive processing,and achievement

Purpose of the present study was to test a conceptual model of relations among achievement goal orientation, self-efficacy, cognitive processing, and achievement of students working within a particular collaborative task context. The task involved a collaborative computer-based modeling task. In order to test the model, group measures of mastery-approach goal orientation, performance-avoidance goal orientation, self-efficacy, and achievement were employed. Students’ cognitive processing was assessed using an online log-file measure. As predicted, mastery-approach goal orientation had a significant positive effect on achievement, which was mediated through students’ use of deep processes. No significant relationships could be found between performance-avoidance goal orientation and surface processing and between surface processing and achievement. Results are discussed with respect to general theoretical implications and lead to suggestions for the design of appropriate scaffolds.     

The relations of parental warmth and positive expressiveness to children's empathy-related responding and social functioning: a longitudinal study

This study examined the concurrent and cross-time relations of parental observed warmth and positive expressivity to children's situational facial and self-reported empathic responding, social competence, and externalizing problems in a sample of 180 elementary school children. Data was collected when the children were in second to fifth grades (age: M = 112.8 months), and again 2 years later. Cross-sectional and longitudinal structural equation models supported the hypothesis that parents' (mostly mothers') positive expressivity mediated the relation between parental warmth and children's empathy, and children's empathy mediated the relation between parental positive expressivity and children's social functioning. These relations persisted after controlling for prior levels of parenting and child characteristics. Moreover, concurrent and cross-time consistencies were found on measures of parenting, children's situational empathic responding, and social functioning.     

Implicit theories of intelligence,goal orientation,cognitive engagement,and achievement: A test of Dweck’s model with returning to school adults

This study tested and extended Dweck’s social-cognitive theory of motivation with adults who deliberately chose to face the challenge of returning to school. We examined the relationships among beliefs (implicit theories) on the nature of intelligence, goal orientation, cognitive engagement in learning, and achievement using path analyses. Findings were generally consistent with Dweck’s theoretical predictions. Striving for competence improvement (mastery goals) had a positive impact on learning activities and outcomes, while striving to demonstrate competence (performance goals) or to avoid effort (work avoidance) had a negative influence on learning and achievement. Additionally, data suggested that mastery goals had a positive influence on academic achievement through the mediation of effort expenditure. The predicted effects of implicit theories of intelligence on goal orientation and cognitive engagement in learning, however, failed to emerge. Results are discussed in relation to their general theoretical implications and with regard to the specific characteristics of returning to school adults.     

Developing online learning resources: Big data,social networks,and cloud computing to support pervasive knowledge

Utilizing online learning resources (OLR) from multi channels in learning activities promise extended benefits from traditional based learning-centred to a collaborative based learning-centred that emphasises pervasive learning anywhere and anytime. While compiling big data, cloud computing, and semantic web into OLR offer a broader spectrum of pervasive knowledge acquisition to enrich users’ experience in learning. In conventional learning practices, a student is perceived as a recipient of information and knowledge. However, nowadays students are empowered to involve in learning processes that play an active role in creating, extracting, and improving OLR collaborative learning platform and knowledge sharing as well as distributing. Researchers have employed contents analysis for reviewing literatures in peer-reviewed journals and interviews with the teachers who utilize OLR. In fact, researchers propose pervasive knowledge can address the need of integrating technologies like cloud computing, big data, Web 2.0, and Semantic Web. Pervasive knowledge redefines value added, variety, volume, and velocity of OLR, which is flexible in terms of resources adoption, knowledge acquisition, and technological implementation.     

Developing,testing and refining of a model to understand the relationship between peer interaction and learning outcomes in computer‐mediated conferencing

Our pervasive adoption of CMC in higher education has far outpaced our understanding of the nature of CMC and, accordingly, how this medium should best be used to promote higher‐order learning (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, American Journal of Distance Education, 15(1), 7–23, 2001). Therefore, this study examined the relationship between peer interaction and learning outcomes by creating and testing through structural equation modeling a model of five variables—learner characteristics measured by self‐construal, perceived teaching style, task design, course requirements, and prior CMC experience—that influence self‐reported peer interaction and self‐reported learning outcomes. The results showed that perceived teaching style had a small direct effect (0.23) and prior CMC experience had a moderate direct effect (0.31) on self‐reported peer interaction; self‐reported peer interaction had a strong direct effect (0.66) on self‐reported learning outcomes.