An evaluative message fosters mathematics performance in male students but decreases intrinsic motivation in female students

This study contrasted the effects of two task messages, evaluative or non-evaluative, on mathematics performance, affect, and intrinsic task motivation. One hundred-twenty secondary-school students aged 17–21 years were delivered one of the two messages, or assigned to a control condition, before completing a mathematics task, measures of message appraisals (challenge and threat), affect (pleasantness, arousal, dominance), and a behavioural indication of intrinsic task motivation. The evaluative message raised performance only in males, while for females both messages decreased intrinsic motivation for the task, probably due to stereotype threat. Implications for future research and educational practices are discussed.HIGHLIGHTS In a low-value context, an evaluative message favoured male mathematics performance Males increased arousal after an evaluative message A challenge appraisal was linked with male performance Females decreased intrinsic motivation after evaluative and non-evaluative messages

Developing school practice in preparing students for high-stake examinations in English and Mathematics

The Aims: The present research aims to allow teachers to utilize feedback from their students to reflect upon their current and future practice in preparing students for high stakes examinations. Method: This study engaged teachers of pupils aged 11 to 16 years old (high school) as participants, affording the opportunity to reflect on their current practice in light of feedback from their students. The research was carried out as a single embedded case study within a secondary school, progressing through 3 phases: initial focus group of six English and Mathematic teachers teaching high stake examination programmes to students age 14-16; interviews with 10 students selected from the teachers’ classes; follow-up focus group with teachers. Findings: The research found that students preferred motivation intentioned language which provided personalised and individualised advice. The research found a link between what students perceived to be motivational and the changes that teachers were able to envisage for future practice, indicating that teachers were able to learn from their students. Limitations: The limitations of the study are the small sample size and focus on English and Maths lessons. Conclusions: Teachers were able to reflect upon their own practice in light of student feedback and from this were able consider positive teacher and whole school behavioural changes

A Network Analysis of Control-Value Appraisals and Class-room-Related Enjoyment, Boredom, and Pride

Control-Value Theory (CVT) proposes that discrete emotions arise from combinations of control-value appraisals of learning activities and outcomes. Studies have supported this proposition using factor analytic, and latent profile, analyses. Network analysis (NA), however, has not been widely used within the field of educational psychology or to investigate the propositions of CVT. In the present study we set out to examine how control-value appraisals related to three commonly experienced classroom emotions: enjoyment, boredom, and pride, using network analysis. In addition, we included positive and negative facets of value. The sample comprised 170 students (53.5% female) in the first year of secondary education who responded to survey items in a cross-sectional design. NA shows a two-dimensional graphical network of items (edges) and the relations between them (edges). In addition, statistical indices can be used to identify those nodes that show numerous or strong links to others or that bridge clusters (communities) of nodes. The NA showed that emotions and value (positive and negative) but not control cohered into distinct communities. Many, but not all edges, were in support of CVT; positive links between control/positive value and enjoyment and pride, and negative links for boredom; negative links between negative value and enjoyment and pride, and positive links for boredom. Three control-value nodes were particular influential, that lessons are important/valuable (positively) and that work requires too much time (negatively). Interventions and classroom instructional strategies that build value/importance and reduce perceptions of time cost may be particularly effective in facilitating positive emotions and reducing negative emotions

Complex Dynamics: Investigation of Within and Between Person Relationships Between Achievement Emotions and Emotion Regulation During Exam Preparation Through Dynamic Network Modelling

In achievement contexts like end-of-semester exam preparation, students experience a variety of positive and negative achievement emotions, and their regulation is crucial. Despite its relevance, the interplay between, and dynamics of, emotions and their regulation is still little understood, particularly as prior research primarily relied on between-person research. In the present study, we use a situated assessment approach and a novel statistical approach, dynamic network modelling, to simultaneously analyze between-person associations, contemporaneous within-person associations as well as temporal lagged within-person associations and stability of achievement emotions and emotion regulation strategies in multivariate models. We used a total of 6,915 assessments of 201 German undergraduate students on six emotions (joy, pride, hope, satisfaction, anxiety, anger, and boredom) and eight emotion regulation strategies (activation, social support, positive refocusing, rumination, reappraisal, suppression, expression, taking action) during exam preparation in two assessment waves (fives week prior, and one week prior to important exams). The results uncovered distinct communities of emotions and emotion regulation strategies, wherein taking action and reappraisal held a particularly central position for explaining their linkages. We found evidence for effects from emotions on use of emotion regulation strategies, and vice-versa, and identified self-enforcing loops and carryover effects. We also observed differences in the stability of the assessed constructs over time, and between the week before the exam and five weeks before, that emphasize the consideration of not only person and situation-specific components, but also the respective context at hand, to which end dynamic network analyses emerge as a promising research avenue

An examination of the self-referent executive processing model of test anxiety: control, emotional regulation, self-handicapping, and examination performance

According to the self-referent executive processing (S-REF) model, test anxiety develops from interactions between three systems: executive self-regulation processes, self-beliefs, and maladaptive situational interactions. Studies have tended to examine one system at a time, often in conjunction with how test anxiety relates to achievement outcomes. The aim of this study was to enable a more thorough test of the S-REF model by examining one key construct from each of these systems simultaneously. These were control (a self-belief construct), emotional regulation through suppression and reappraisal (an executive process), and self-handicapping (a maladaptive situational interaction). Relations were examined from control, emotional regulation, and self-handicapping to cognitive test anxiety (worry), and subsequent examination performance on a high-stakes test. Data were collected from 273 participants in their final year of secondary education. A structural equation model showed that higher control was indirectly related to better examination performance through lower worry, higher reappraisal was indirectly related to worse examination performance through higher worry, and higher self-handicapping was related to worse examination performance through lower control and higher worry. These findings suggest that increasing control and reducing self-handicapping would be key foci for test anxiety interventions to incorporate. © 2018 The Author(s