Control-Value Appraisals, Enjoyment, and Boredom in Mathematics: A Longitudinal Latent Interaction Analysis

Based on the control-value theory of achievement emotions, this longitudinal study examined students’ control-value appraisals as antecedents of their enjoyment and boredom in mathematics. Self-report data for appraisals and emotions were collected from 579 students in their final year of primary schooling over three waves. Data were analyzed using latent interaction structural equation modeling. Control-value appraisals predicted emotions interactively depending on which specific subjective value was paired with perceived control. Achievement value amplified the positive relation between perceived control and enjoyment, and intrinsic value reduced the negative relation between perceived control and boredom. These longitudinal findings demonstrate that control and value appraisals, and their interaction, are critically important for the development of students’ enjoyment and boredom over time

Examination Pressures on Children and Young People: Are They Taken Seriously Enough?

There are widespread concerns among those who work in, and with, English primary and secondary schools, over the pressures that children and young people are experiencing when preparing for, and taking, Year 6 National Curriculum Tests (NCTs), General Certificate of Secondary Education examinations (GCSEs), and General Certificate of Education Advanced Level (A-Level) examinations . The concerns regarding Year 6 NCTs are not new. Since the late 1990s teachers’ professional bodies, educational commentators, and researchers, have drawn attention to the potentially damaging effects on the motivation and self-esteem of pupils, and a narrowing of the curriculum, arising from an excessive focus on testing in the latter stages of primary education resulting from top-down accountability pressures . Concerns regarding GCSEs and A-Levels are more recent and have arisen since the reform of curriculum content, assessment, and grading, from 2014 onwards . The move to increased, and more difficult, curriculum content that is largely assessed through terminal exams, has coincided with an increase in the number of students requesting support or counselling to cope with the pressures and reporting adverse effects on mental health (including self-harm, anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts) , . Concerns regarding the stresses of taking exams were rejected by the incumbent Minister of State for School Standards, Nick Gibb, in April 2019 . Nonetheless, the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation published in 2019 a blog on understanding exam anxiety and a student guide for coping with exam pressures

Is Perceived Control a Critical Factor in Understanding the Negative Relationship Between Cognitive Test Anxiety and Examination Performance?

A well established finding is that the cognitive component of test anxiety (worry) is negatively related to examination performance. The present study examined how 3 self-beliefs (academic buoyancy, perceived control, and test competence) moderated the strength of the relationship between worry and examination performance in a sample of 270 final year secondary school students. Participants completed self-reports of academic buoyancy, perceived control, test competence, and cognitive test anxiety, that were matched with examination grades in English, science, and mathematics. Results showed an interaction between worry and perceived control. Students with higher perceived control performed better at low levels of worry. As worry increased, the differential advantage offered by higher perceived control diminished. At high levels of worry control made little difference to examination performance. Interventions designed to reduce worry may not necessarily improve examination performance unless they also target improved control

Does the confidence of first-year undergraduate students change over time according to achievement goal profile?

© 2014 Society for Research into Higher Education. This study examined the changes in students' academic behavioural confidence over the course of their first year of academic study and whether changes differ by their achievement goal profile. Self-report data were collected from 434 participants in three waves: at the beginning of the first semester of their first year of undergraduate study, at the beginning of the second semester, and again at beginning of the second year of undergraduate study. At the outset of their studies the authors identified three clusters of achievement goal profiles which differentiated between students' confidence in attaining grades, independent study and discussing course material. By the beginning of the second year any dips in confidence had disappeared which the authors construe in a positive light. The clusters of achievement goals shown at the outset of the first year of academic study does not seem to show any differentiated lasting disadvantage or advantage to students' confidence

Does Increased Effort Compensate for Performance Debilitating Test Anxiety?

Objective: It is well established that test anxiety is negatively related to examination performance. Based on attentional control theory, the aim of this study was to examine whether increased effort can protect against performance debilitating test anxiety. Method: Four hundred and sixty-six participants (male = 228, 48.9%; white = 346, 74.3%; mean age = 15.7 years) completed self-report measures of test anxiety and effort that were matched to performance on a high-stakes secondary school examination. Results: The worry and bodily symptoms components of test anxiety were negatively, and effort, positively related to examination performance. Effort moderated the negative relation between bodily symptoms and examination performance. At low effort the negative relationship was amplified and at high effort was attenuated. Conclusions: Compensatory effort protects performance against bodily symptoms but not worry. It is possible that the cognitive load on working memory arising from the combination of worry and examination demands may be too high to be compensated by effort

Fear appeals used prior to a high-stakes examination: What makes them threatening?

Prior to high-stakes examinations teachers use messages that focus on avoiding failure as a motivational strategy. Such messages, referred to as fear appeals, have been linked with negative outcomes. The strength of that link is determined by whether fear appeals are appraised by students as threatening. The aim of this study was to examine whether the threat appraisal of fear appeals was predicted from frequency of message use, academic self-efficacy and subjective values (intrinsic, attainment and extrinsic). 544 secondary school students clustered in thirty Mathematics classes completed measures of academic self-efficacy, subjective values and fear appeals (both frequency and threat). Fear appeals were appraised as more threatening when students reported lower academic self-efficacy, were in classes where their teacher made more frequent fear appeals concerning the consequences of failure and when the class was composed of students with low intrinsic, but high extrinsic, values. Students differ in the extent to which they appraise fear appeals as threatening. Teachers and instructors would be advised to consider how they convey the importance of high-stakes examinations to students as well as how messages might be received by different students. © 2014

Is Reducing Uncertain Control the Key to Successful Test Anxiety Intervention for Secondary School Students? Findings From a Randomized Control Trial.

The aim of the study was to conduct a randomized control trial of a targeted, facilitated, test anxiety intervention for a group of adolescent students, and to examine the mediating role of uncertain control. Fifty-six participants (male = 19, white = 21, mean age = 14.7 years) were randomly allocated to an early intervention or wait-list control group. Participants completed the Revised Test Anxiety Scale and the Uncertain Control Scale from the Motivation and Engagement Scale at baseline, after the early intervention group had received the intervention, and again, after the wait-list control group had received the intervention. Participants showed moderate to large reductions in the worry and tension components of test anxiety, and uncertain control, after the intervention. The reduction in worry and tension was partially mediated by the reduction in uncertain control. Findings contribute to the evidence base for test anxiety interventions designed for school age populations and highlight uncertain control as an important factor in test anxiety intervention

Expectancy of success, subjective task-value, and message frame in the appraisal of value-promoting messages made prior to a high-stakes examination

© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht Previous research has examined how subjective task-value and expectancy of success influence the appraisal of value-promoting messages used by teachers prior to high-stakes examinations. The aim of this study was to examine whether message-frame (gain or loss-framed messages) also influences the appraisal of value-promoting messages. Two hundred and fifty-two participants in Years 12 and 13 read vignettes of fictional students who were high or low in subjective-task value, and expectancy of success, and asked to imagine how that student would appraise either a gain or loss-framed message. A challenge appraisal followed vignettes with high subjective task-value and high expectancy of success whereas a threat appraisal followed vignettes with high subjective task-value and low expectancy of success. A loss-framed message resulted in a stronger threat appraisal, and a gain-framed message in a greater disregarding appraisal for the vignette with high subjective task-value and high expectancy of success. Value-promoting messages can be appraised in different ways depending on combinations of intrapersonal (subjective task-value and expectancy of success) and interpersonal (message-frame) influences. © 2016 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrech

Teachers use of fear appeals and timing reminders prior to high-stakes examinations: pressure from above, below, and within

Teachers often communicate to students the consequences of success and failure (fear appeals) and the timing (timing reminders) of forthcoming examinations. Prior research has examined how fear appeals and teaching reminders are evaluated by students and how they relate to educational outcomes such as engagement. Few studies have addressed the use of these behaviours from a teacher’s perspective. We examined teacher use of consequence and timing reminders, used prior to examinations, and its relation to perceived accountability pressure, teacher self-efficacy, perceived importance of tested outcomes, and the belief that students would interpret such messages as threatening. Data were collected from 854 English primary and secondary school teachers. Results showed that fear appeals and timing reminders were used more frequently when teachers believed that tested outcomes were important, when they had lower self-efficacy to engage students, and when they believed that students would interpret messages as threatening. Timing reminders, but not fear appeals, were used more frequently when perceived accountability pressure was greater. These findings help to understand why teachers are using such behaviours. In this study it was pressures from above, below, and within. © 2018 The Author(s

Achievement Emotions and Academic Achievement: Reciprocal Relations and the Moderating Influence of Academic Buoyancy

Control-value theory proposes that achievement emotions impact achievement, and that achievement outcomes (i.e., success and failure) reciprocally influence the development of achievement emotions. Academic buoyancy is an adaptive response to minor academic adversity, and might, therefore, offer protection from achievement being undermined by negative achievement emotions. At present, however, there is little empirical evidence for these hypothesized relations. In this study we examined reciprocal relations between three achievement emotions (enjoyment, boredom, and anxiety) and test performance in the context of mathematics, and whether academic buoyancy moderated relations between these emotions and test performance. Data were collected from 1,242 primary school students (mean age = 9.3 years) over four waves within one school year. Achievement emotions (T1 and T3) and test performance (T2 and T4) were measured alternately. Academic buoyancy was measured at T3. A structural equation model showed negative relations of anxiety to subsequent test performance, and negative relations of test performance to subsequent anxiety. Test performance also predicted enjoyment and boredom, but not vice versa. A latent-interaction structural equation model showed buoyancy moderated relations between anxiety and test performance. Test performance was highest when anxiety was low and buoyancy high. Practitioners should consider using interventions to reduce anxiety and downstream effects on achievement