Motivational Aspects of Development in School Achievement – The Case of Specific Learning Situations and Mathematical Development

Cognitive, social, emotional, and motivational aspects of development play their part in the assessment, prediction, and design of interventions with regard to school achievement, although intelligence, one major cognitive precondition, is generally ascribed the strongest relationship. However, current literature has revealed that motivational aspects such as self-efficacy, self-concept, and flow experiences contribute uniquely and substantially to school achievement across developmental stages, making the need for an integrative view evident. Findings based on skill development and self-enhancing perspectives of motivational aspects suggest that potential virtuous cycles become relevant at different levels of specificity, for instance, regarding separable learning situations or skill domains during the secondary school years. Thus, the overarching goal of this thesis was to determine how motivational aspects contribute to school achievement irrespective of cognitive preconditions in the context of (a) specific learning situations and (b) mathematical development. In three studies, predictive patterns were empirically investigated, using longitudinal data from secondary school students and by taking intelligence measures as well as skill tests, teacher assessments of achievement, and self-assessed motivational aspects into account. Results indicate that (a) flow experiences are linked to school achievement in specific learning situations, (b) self-efficacy mediates effects of prior achievement on later mathematical modeling, and (c) the effects of motivational aspects on mathematical development transfer to overall skill development. Taken together, potentiating effects of motivational aspects on school achievement irrespective of cognitive preconditions can be deduced, indicating a strong starting point to enter a potential virtuous cycle, which practitioners, that is, teachers, diagnosticians, and counselors, should be especially aware of

Character Strengths Are Related to Students' Achievement, Flow Experiences, and Enjoyment in Teacher-Centered Learning, Individual, and Group Work Beyond Cognitive Ability

While character strengths have been found to predict educational outcomes beyond broad personality traits and cognitive ability, little is known about their differential contribution to success and positive learning experiences in different school settings. In this study, we use trait activation theory to investigate the relationships of students' character strengths with achievement, flow experiences, and enjoyment in different learning situations (i.e., teacher-centered learning, individual tasks, and group work). In studying these relationships, we controlled for psychometric intelligence. Secondary school students (N = 255; 46.3% male; mean age = 14.5 years) completed a self-report measure of character strengths, the VIA-Youth (Park and Peterson, 2006b). Cognitive ability was assessed using a standardized intelligence test (PSB-R; Horn et al., 2003) at baseline. Three months later, students completed the Flow Short Scale (Rheinberg et al., 2003) adapted to the three learning situations and indicated their typical enjoyment of these situations. Both the students and their teachers (N = 18; 50% male; mean age = 44.8 years) provided ratings on school achievement in each of the three learning situations. Results indicate that, as expected, (a) certain character strengths (love of learning and perseverance) show consistent relationships with achievement and positive learning experiences (flow and enjoyment) above and beyond cognitive ability across all learning situations, whereas (b) other character strengths show differential trait-outcome relationships (e.g., the character strength of teamwork was predictive of achievement and positive learning experiences in group work). Taken together, these results suggest that different character strengths play a role in different school situations and that their contribution to explaining variance in educational outcomes is incremental to the contribution of cognitive ability

Transfer effects of mathematical literacy: an integrative longitudinal study

Mathematical literacy (ML) is considered central to the application of mathematical knowledge in everyday life and thus is found in many comparative international educational standards. However, there exists barely any evidence about predictors and outcomes of ML having a lasting effect on achievement in nonmathematical domains. We drew on a large longitudinal sample of N = 4001 secondary school students in Grades 5 to 9 and tested for effects of ML on later academic achievement.We took prior achievement in different domains (information and communication technology literacy, scientific literacy, reading comprehension, and listening comprehension), socioeconomic status, and gender into account and investigated predictive effects of math grade, mathematical self-concept, reasoning, and prior achievement on ML. Using structural equation models, we found support for the importance of integrating multiple predictors and revealed a transfer effect of ML on achievement in different school domains. The findings highlight the importance of ML for school curricula and lasting educational decisions