Experiencing fear appeals as a challenge or a threat influences attainment value and academic self-efficacy

© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. Fear appeals are persuasive messages that highlight the negative consequences of a particular course of action. Studies have shown that attainment value and academic self-efficacy predict how fear appeals are appraised. In this study we examined how the appraisal of fear appeals might also influence subsequent attainment value and academic self-efficacy. Self-report data were collected from 1433 students in their final two years of secondary education over three waves. Findings revealed that when students saw fear appeals as a challenge attainment value and academic self-efficacy were higher. When students saw fear appeals as a threat, attainment value and academic self-efficacy were lower. These results highlight the functional importance of how fear appeals are appraised. Challenge and threat appraisals were not mere by products of attainment value or academic self-efficacy but impacted on attainment value and academic self-efficacy; variables that are likely to make a critical impact on educational progress and attainment. We conclude that initial teacher education and teacher professional development programs would benefit from enhanced interpersonal and relational-skills training to enable teachers to judge more effectively how fear appeals are appraised

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

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

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

The importance of psychological need satisfaction in educational re-engagement.

Students attending alternative provision (AP) schools have typically disengaged with their education. They present with multiple problems and complex support needs which makes their re-engagement back into education challenging. This study examined educational re-engagement using the self-system model of motivational processes. Teacher (or other school staff) practices that facilitated and inhibited the students’ psychological needs for autonomy, relatedness and competence were identified. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 35 students (aged 14–16 years) attending an AP school in England and data were triangulated using staff interviews and lesson observations. Interpretive phenomenological analysis was used to code the data. More staff practices were categorised as facilitating one of the three needs, and more students mentioned these positive behaviours, than the need-inhibiting practices. This fostered trusting, caring and respectful student-staff relationships, which ultimately led to educational re-engagement. It would be beneficial if such findings were incorporated into government statutory guidelines for AP establishments in order to increase awareness amongst those on the frontline. Moreover, findings support the current UK government policy to increase the number of AP schools, as they have the scope to focus on the supportive staff practices