Too Much of a Good Thing Might Be Bad : the Double-Edged Sword of Parental Aspirations and the Adverse Effects of Aspiration-Expectation Gaps

Conventional wisdom suggests that parents’ educational expectations (how far they expect their children to go) and aspirations (how far they want their children to go) positively impact academic outcomes and benefits from attending high-ability schools. However, here we juxtapose the following: largely positive effects of educational expectations (of parents, teachers, and students); small, mixed effects of parent aspirations; largely adverse effects of parental aspiration-expectation gaps; and negative effects of school-average achievement on expectations, aspirations, and subsequent outcomes. We used a large, nationally representative longitudinal sample (16,197 Year-10 students from 751 US high schools). Controlling background (achievement, SES, gender, age, ethnicity, academic track, and a composite risk factor), Year 10 educational expectations of teachers and parents had consistently positive effects on the following: student expectations in Years 10 and 12, Year 10 academic self-concept, final high-school grade-point-averages, and long-term outcomes at age 26 (educational attainment, educational and occupational expectations). Effects of parent aspirations on these outcomes were predominantly small and mixed in direction. However, the aspiration-expectation gap negatively predicted all these outcomes. Contrary to our proposed Goldilocks Effect (not too much, not too little, but just right), non-linear effects of expectations and aspirations were small and largely non-significant. Parent, teacher, student expectations, and parent aspirations were all negatively predicted by school-average achievement (a big-fish-little-pond effect). However, these adverse effects of school-average achievement were larger for parents and particularly teachers than students. Furthermore, these expectations and aspirations partly mediated the adverse impacts of school-average achievement on subsequent grade-point-average and age-26 outcomes

Peer victimization : An integrative review and cross-national test of a tripartite model

School victimization issues remain largely unresolved due to over-reliance on unidimensional conceptions of victimization and data from a few developed OECD countries. Thus, support for cross-national generalizability over multiple victimization components (relational, verbal, and physical) is weak. Our substantive–methodological synergy tests the cross-national generalizability of a three-component model (594,196 fifteen-year-olds; nationally -representative samples from 77 countries) compared to competing (unidimensional and two-component) victimization models. We demonstrate the superior explanatory power of the three-component model—goodness-of-fit, component differentiation, and discriminant validity of the three components concerning gender differences, paradoxical anti-bullying attitudes (the Pro-Bully Paradox) whereby victims are more supportive of bullies than of other victims, and multiple indicators of well-being. For example, gender differences varied significantly across the three components, and all 13 well-being indicators were more strongly related to verbal and particularly relational victimization than physical victimization. Collapsing the three components into one or two components undermined discriminant validity. Cross-nationally, systematic differences emerged across the three victimization components regarding country-level means, gender differences, national development, and cultural values. These findings across countries support a tripartite model in which the three components of victimization—relational, verbal, and physical—relate differently to key outcomes. Thus, these findings advance victimization theory and have implications for policy, practice, and intervention. We also discuss directions for further research: the need for simultaneous evaluation of multiple, parallel components of victimization and bullying, theoretical definitions of bullying and victimization and their implications for measurement, conceptual bases of global victimization indices, cyberbullying, anti-bullying policies, and capitalizing on anti-bullying attitudes

Achievement emotions : A control-value theory perspective

Achievement emotions are ubiquitous in educational settings. Students frequently experience emotions such as enjoyment, hope for success, pride about accomplishments, anger, frustration, anxiety, shame, or boredom at school. These emotions can be very intense, and today we know that they can exert profound effects on learning, performance, and well-being (Pekrun et al. 2002; Quinlan 2016). Nevertheless, they have received little attention from researchers until recently. In this chapter, I consider such emotions, with a specific focus on emotions in education. To begin, I define emotion and achievement emotions. I then review research on the origins and functions of achievement emotions, using Pekrun’s (2006; Pekrun & Perry 2014) control-value theory (CVT) of achievement emotions as a conceptual framework. In conclusion, I address regulation and modification of achievement emotions and their relative universality across genders, achievement settings, and social-cultural and historical contexts

Jingle-Jangle Fallacies in Motivation Science : Toward a Definition of Core Motivation

The term “motivation” is used in a myriad of different ways. This is unfortunate because divergent use of words can lead to misunderstandings and confusion. The jingle-jangle fallacy occurs when one uses the same word to refer to different things (jingle) or uses different words to refer to the same thing (jangle). Nevertheless, despite differences in the range of processes considered, there seems to be a common denominator in the usage of “motivation.” According to this denominator, motivation denotes mental processes that shape the goal direction, intensity, and persistence of behavior. The nature of these processes is left undefined, so a more concrete definition is needed. Thus, core motivation is the mental representation of desired states and actions combined with the feeling of desire

A Control-Value Approach to Affective Growth

Control-value theory (CVT) can be used to understand and promote affective growth. The theory explains how emotion and motivation are shaped by individual appraisals of control and value as well as situational conditions, and how all three factors impact thought, action, and performance. Emotions and motivation are linked with these antecedents (control, value) and outcomes by reciprocal effects over time, which opens up various possibilities to manage emotions and motivate people. As the author of this essay explains, according to CVT, four major motivation strategies include modifying appraisals, enhancing personal competencies, changing emotional and motivational reactions, and changing situational factors

Dissecting the Elephant : Cognition, Emotion, and Motivation as Distinct but Intertwined Entities

Cognition, emotion, and motivation are mental processes that can be conceptually separated but nevertheless overlap considerably. Most motivational processes involve cognition, and that cognition typically is motivated. Similarly, motivation often comprises emotion, and emotions can include motivational components. Nevertheless, given that they represent different facets of the mental system, it is still useful to distinguish between the three constructs. The potential intersection also presents a problem for any research on the relations between cognition, emotion, and motivation variables—to the extent that they measure the same phenomena, empirical relations between the measures may be boosted by overlap rather than reflecting relations between independent constructs. These distinctions and points of overlap have implications for the assessment of motivation and for motivation interventions

Emotions and learning from multiple representations and perspectives

Using control-value theory as a conceptual framework, we review the literature on the role of emotions in learning from multiple inputs. We first provide a conceptual definition of emotion and an overview of the different types of emotions that play a role during learning, including achievement, epistemic, topic, and social emotions. Next, we discuss theoretical propositions about the origins and functions of these emotions. In the third section, we review empirical evidence on emotions during learning from multiple representations, both in terms of the sensory channels used and in terms of structures of multiple representations that guide learners’ emotion-prompting appraisals. Most of this evidence has been gathered in studies on technology-enhanced multimedia learning, such as learning with intelligent tutoring systems, simulations, and games. Subsequently, we summarize recent findings on learning from multiple perspectives, such as contradictory perspectives provided in texts on controversial issues or refutation texts targeting conceptual change. In conclusion, we discuss directions for future research and implications for practice

Academic Emotions and Student Engagement

Emotions are ubiquitous in academic settings, and they profoundly affect students’ academic engagement and performance. In this chapter, we summarize the extant research on academic emotions and their linkages with students’ engagement. First, we outline relevant concepts of academic emotion, including achievement, epistemic, topic, and social emotions. Second, we discuss the impact of these emotions on students’ cognitive, motivational, behavioral, cognitive-behavioral, and social-behavioral engagement, and on their academic performance. Next, we examine the origins of students’ academic emotions in terms of individual and contextual variables. Finally, we highlight the complexity of students’ emotions, focusing on reciprocal causation as well as regulation and treatment of these emotions. In conclusion, we discuss directions for future research, with a special emphasis on the need for educational design and intervention research targeting emotions

Emotional Foundations of Game-Based Learning

By some estimates, the average student will have spent 10,000 hours playing computer-based games by age 21—as much time as they will have spent at school (McGonigal, 2010). Therefore, taking advantage of students’ motivation to engage in gaming to help them acquire knowledge seems to be an especially promising way to advance learning in the twenty-first century. However, the mechanisms underlying successful game-based learning (GBL) remain poorly understood. In this chapter, we focus on one important group of factors that likely shape digital GBL: learners’ emotions. This chapter provides a review of these emotional foundations of digital GBL. We first provide examples of emotion-relevant elements of GBL, using the well-studied intelligent game Crystal Island (Rowe, Shores, Mott, & Lester, 2011) as a case study. Next, we define emotion and discuss types of emotions relevant to GBL. We then offer an integrative model of the emotional foundations of GBL and use this model to review the extant literature. Finally, we derive implications for the design of emotionally sound GBLEs and outline directions for future research

School grades and students’ emotions : Longitudinal models of within-person reciprocal effects

Based on control-value theory, we expected reciprocal associations between school grades and students' achievement emotions. Existing research has employed between-person designs to examine links between grades and emotions, but has failed to analyze their within-person relations. Reanalyzing data used by Pekrun et al. (2017) for between-person analysis, we investigated within-person relations of students’ grades and emotions in mathematics over 5 school years (N = 3,425 German students from the PALMA longitudinal study; 50.0% female). The findings from random-intercept cross-lagged modeling show that grades positively predicted positive emotions within persons over time. These emotions, in turn, positively predicted grades. Grades were negative predictors of negative emotions, and these emotions, in turn, were negative predictors of grades. The within-person effects were largely equivalent to between-person relations of grades and emotions. Implications for theory, future research, and educational practice are discussed