Self-concept Of Ability Research Articles

The Structure of Academic Self-Concept When Facing Novel Learning Content: Multidimensionality, Hierarchy, and Change

Academic self-concepts of ability are key factors in promoting education and learning throughout students’ school career. Yet we know little about their structure and structural change when students leave high school to face novel academic tasks. The present study investigated the structure and structural change of first-year students’ study-related self-concepts of ability. Data stems from a longitudinal study with two measurement points covering the initial study phase (t1: N = 341; age: M = 21.6; SD = 3.56; 57.5% female). Self-concepts were assessed regarding the participants’ study program and four of its subordinate subjects. Confirmatory factor analyses and structural equation models were used to compare structural models and to investigate structural stability and directional effects. Results support the assumption of multidimensionality (i.e., distinct self-concepts for different subjects) and hierarchy with a generic field-of-study-specific self-concept at the apex. Specifying generic field-of-study-specific self-concept as a method factor (i.e., indicated by both subject-specific and field-of-study-specific items) was most consistent with theoretical assumptions. The structural model was invariant over the first months at university. Generic field-of-study-specific self-concept and subject-specific self-concepts largely developed independently from one another. The results emphasize the recently suggested conceptualization of generic self-concept as a method factor to reflect self-concept hierarchy. Self-concepts were structurally stable over time. Several significant horizontal effects (i.e., stability within subjects) suggest that students align their self-concepts closely to the curriculum they encounter in educational contexts and, therefore, may benefit from ample feedback on their performance to develop appropriate subject-specific self-concepts.

The Importance of Students' Motivation for Their Academic Achievement - Replicating and Extending Previous Findings.

Achievement motivation is not a single construct but rather subsumes a variety of different constructs like ability self-concepts, task values, goals, and achievement motives. The few existing studies that investigated diverse motivational constructs as predictors of school students’ academic achievement above and beyond students’ cognitive abilities and prior achievement showed that most motivational constructs predicted academic achievement beyond intelligence and that students’ ability self-concepts and task values are more powerful in predicting their achievement than goals and achievement motives. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether the reported previous findings can be replicated when ability self-concepts, task values, goals, and achievement motives are all assessed at the same level of specificity as the achievement criteria (e.g., hope for success in math and math grades). The sample comprised 345 11th and 12th grade students (M = 17.48 years old, SD = 1.06) from the highest academic track (Gymnasium) in Germany. Students self-reported their ability self-concepts, task values, goal orientations, and achievement motives in math, German, and school in general. Additionally, we assessed their intelligence and their current and prior Grade point average and grades in math and German. Relative weight analyses revealed that domain-specific ability self-concept, motives, task values and learning goals but not performance goals explained a significant amount of variance in grades above all other predictors of which ability self-concept was the strongest predictor. Results are discussed with respect to their implications for investigating motivational constructs with different theoretical foundation.

Industry-school projects as an aim to foster secondary school students\u2019 interest in technology and engineering careers

Industry-school partnerships offer authentic learning opportunities and can support the development of students’ interest in a STEM career. The expectancy-value model of achievement-related choice can help to explain how several factors influence career choice. Interest-enjoyment values and attainment values are most important in students’ motivation to participate in out-of-school technology and design activities. Our research question is the following: Is there a development in secondary school students’ career interests in science-based technology-related professions while participating in industry-school partnerships? We employed a longitudinal, mixed-methods research design. The sample consists of 213 secondary school students from 9 classes and 72 students from 4 classes in 4 neighbouring schools who served as a control group. All of the students filled out a questionnaire before and after the visit. The questionnaire items were based on scales relating to an expectancy-value model. Four groups of students were interviewed with respect to the industry visit experiences. Analyses indicated that attitudes for applying technology became relevant for predicting career interest in a technology profession in the project group after the end of the project. However, career interest did not increase over time. In the qualitative analysis, four topics emerged that elucidated why career interest did not increase. Overall, the results demonstrate that factory visits combined with embedded tasks are one way to overcome fixed ability self-concepts and allow the students to reconsider a career in the technology and engineering industry towards the end of secondary school.

The Role of Sociocultural Factors in Student Achievement Motivation: A Cross-Cultural Review

Motivation is an essential determinant of academic learning, educational choices, and career decisions during adolescence and early adulthood. While achievement motivation has been widely studied across Western populations, recent work has emphasized the importance of examining the universality versus cultural specificity of motivation constructs across countries or diverse cultures. This article is a systematic review of the current discourse surrounding developmental and gender differences in student motivation in the disciplines of mathematics and English, offering comparisons of how these patterns are deployed within Western and East Asian countries. Guided by expectancy–value theory, this review focuses on ability self-concept and task values as two prominent motivational constructs. The authors first examine age and gender differences in the development of ability self-concept and task values among those from Western and East Asian countries from primary school to secondary school. Next, the sociocultural and contextual factors driving developmental and gender differences in motivation are discussed. The article concludes by summarizing the limitations of existing literature and suggesting new lines of inquiry to advance knowledge in cross-cultural studies on student achievement motivation.

The Relations of Science Task Values, Self-Concept of Ability, and STEM Aspirations Among Finnish Students From First to Second Grade.

According to modern expectancy-value theory, students’ motivation in school subjects begins to vary at the very beginning of their school careers, showing a task-specific pattern of motivation. However, there is no clear evidence in the literature on how students’ value beliefs are formed and interact with each other in early elementary schools. Using the longitudinal structural equation modeling, this study examined relations between science-related task values (i.e., intrinsic value and cost), self-concept of ability, and future occupational aspirations based on first graders and 1-year follow-up from seven schools in Helsinki (N = 332; ages = 7 and 8 years; girls = 51%). Results showed that the students who had a high science-related self-concept of ability and intrinsic value tended to perceive low cost of science learning. Science-related self-concept of ability was the most stable construct, while in intrinsic value and cost, there were significant levels of fluctuation across the first and second grades. A high science-related self-concept of ability in the first grade predicted a lower cost value in the second grade, and a high science-related intrinsic value was a marginally significant predictor of future occupational aspirations in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Mean-level differences revealed that the girls’ science-related self-concept of ability, intrinsic value, and cost remained the same in both grades, while the boys’ self-concept of ability decreased. The girls’ mean levels in science-related intrinsic value were higher than those of the boys, while students’ self-concept of ability and cost were similar across gender in both grades. A cross-lagged panel model revealed that the girls reported more STEM occupational aspirations than the boys in the second grade, while controlling for the motivational beliefs. In summary, the results indicate that a high-level of science interest in young students predicts STEM occupational aspirations; high girls’ intrinsic value in early science education does not steer them away from STEM occupations; boys’ task motivation might be at greater risk of decline during early science education.

Happy fish in little ponds: Testing a reference group model of achievement and emotion.

A theoretical model linking achievement and emotions is proposed. The model posits that individual achievement promotes positive achievement emotions and reduces negative achievement emotions. In contrast, group-level achievement is thought to reduce individuals' positive emotions and increase their negative emotions. The model was tested using one cross-sectional and two longitudinal datasets on 5th to 10th grade students' achievement emotions in mathematics (Studies 1-3: Ns = 1,610, 1,759, and 4,353, respectively). Multilevel latent structural equation modeling confirmed that individual achievement had positive predictive effects on positive emotions (enjoyment, pride) and negative predictive effects on negative emotions (anger, anxiety, shame, and hopelessness), controlling for prior achievement, autoregressive effects, reciprocal effects, gender, and socioeconomic status (SES). Class-level achievement had negative compositional effects on the positive emotions and positive compositional effects on the negative emotions. Additional analyses suggested that self-concept of ability is a possible mediator of these effects. Furthermore, there were positive compositional effects of class-level achievement on individual achievement in Study 2 but not in Study 3, indicating that negative compositional effects on emotion are not reliably counteracted by positive effects on performance. The results were robust across studies, age groups, synchronous versus longitudinal analysis, and latent-manifest versus doubly latent modeling. These findings imply that individual success drives emotional well-being, whereas placing individuals in high-achieving groups can undermine well-being. Thus, the findings challenge policy and practice decisions on achievement-contingent allocation of individuals to groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Motivational Beliefs Specific to Business Studies Subfields: Interrelations, Antecedents, and Change in the Introductory Study Phase

In higher education, self-concepts of ability (SCA) and intrinsic task values (ITV) are key determinants of students’ choice of study program and dropout. Both constructs are multidimensional (i.e., specific to curricular learning content) and hierarchically structured (i.e., aggregate into one or more higher-order factors), which is often neglected in higher education research. Therefore, the present study investigated German business studies students’ (N = 375; age: M (SD) = 21.8 (5.51); 59% female) SCAs and ITVs at the level of subfields. Longitudinal data collected at the transition into higher education (t1) and toward the end of the first semester (t2) gave insight into (changes in) interrelations and antecedents of subfield-specific SCAs and ITVs during the introductory study phase, when students likely had to review their hitherto anticipated motivational beliefs. Results from confirmatory factor analyses and structural equation modeling revealed that interrelations of SCAs and ITVs decrease over time. SCAs correlate increasingly strongly within a mathematical and a verbal domain compared to cross-domain correlations. Accordingly, mathematics, but not German SCA, from high school predicts all subfield-specific SCAs at t1, but only mathematical subfield SCAs at t2. The pattern of results for ITVs is less systematic: Mathematics ITV consistently predicted both mathematical subfield ITVs, whereas German ITV predicted law ITV only at t1. Curricular and practical implications of the subfield-specific formation of motivational beliefs at the transition into higher education are discussed.

Supplemental Material for Relative Importance of Intelligence and Ability Self-Concept in Predicting Test Performance and School Grades in the Math and Language Arts Domains

Supplemental Material for Relative Importance of Intelligence and Ability Self-Concept in Predicting Test Performance and School Grades in the Math and Language Arts Domains

Do Teachers' Beliefs About Math Aptitude and Brilliance Explain Gender Differences in Children's Math Ability Self-Concept?

The self-concept of ability in math in elementary school is an early predictor for future math-related choices and careers. Unfortunately, already at this early age girls report lower ability self-concepts in math than boys - despite their comparable performances in objective math competence tests. In the present study we focus on teachers’ beliefs as factors explaining these gender differences. Women’s underrepresentation in math and science in academia has recently been explained by the belief held by the environment that success in these domains requires an innate ability that cannot be taught (“brilliance”). In addition, teachers’ beliefs regarding their students’ mathematical aptitude have also been found to influence students’ self-concepts of ability. Here, we study if teachers’ beliefs regarding their students’ mathematical aptitude and brilliance beliefs may account for gender differences in elementary school students’ self-concept of ability in math and thus potentially contribute to entering the gendered path into math and science professions. In a sample of 830 fourth graders (M = 9.14 years old, 49% female) and 56 elementary school teachers from Germany, we assessed teachers’ beliefs regarding their students’ mathematical aptitude and their belief that children need brilliance to succeed in math as well as children’s mathematical ability self-concept and competencies. In line with prior research, boys reported a statistically significantly more positive math ability self-concept (d = 0.50), although boys and girls reached similar scores in a standardized math competence test (d = 0.07). However, multilevel regression analyses revealed that teachers’ math brilliance beliefs were not related to the gender gap in students’ ability self-concept in expense of girls whereas the gender gap was mediated by teachers’ beliefs about their students’ mathematical aptitude. These findings suggest that math brilliance beliefs held by important socializers such as teachers might not play a role in explaining gender differences in math-related motivation in elementary school whereas teachers’ beliefs about students’ math aptitude do. Results are discussed against the background of teacher expectancy effects, developmental changes in elementary school, and cultural differences.

Ability self-concept formation in elementary school: No dimensional comparison effects across time.

In line with the reciprocal internal/external frame of reference model (RI/E model), it is well-established that secondary school students generate domain-specific ability self-concepts by comparing their own performance in a domain socially (i.e., with others' performance in this domain) and dimensionally (i.e., with their own performance in other domains). However, developmental theories of ability conceptions suggest that the use of such performance comparisons to evaluate own abilities may differ by students' developmental stage because of important developmental changes between early and late childhood. Yet, to our knowledge, no study has investigated dimensional comparison effects in elementary school longitudinally although this can provide valuable information on the formation of ability self-concepts. Thus, we tested whether longitudinal dimensional effects on changes in students' ability self-concepts occur in the early school years. Ability self-concepts and grades in math and German of 542 German elementary school students were assessed seven times over 24 months from Grade 2 (M = 7.95 years of age, SD = 0.58) to Grade 4. Cross-sectional analyses showed some evidence for dimensional effects of students' math grades on their German self-concepts, but not of students' German grades on their math self-concepts. Longitudinal analyses with latent cross-lagged models revealed no evidence for longitudinal dimensional effects on changes in children's ability self-concepts. Findings indicate that dimensional comparisons are not as important in ability self-concept formation in the first school years as they tend to be later on. Findings underline the importance of considering developmental differences to better understand ability self-concept formation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Changes in United States Latino/a High School Students' Science Motivational Beliefs: Within Group Differences Across Science Subjects, Gender, Immigrant Status, and Perceived Support.

Science motivational beliefs are crucial for STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) performance and persistence, but these beliefs typically decline during high school. We expanded the literature on adolescents’ science motivational beliefs by examining: (1) changes in motivational beliefs in three specific science subjects, (2) how gender, immigrant generation status, and perceived support from key social agents predicted differences in adolescents’ science motivational beliefs, and (3) these processes among Latino/as in the United States, whose underrepresentation in STEM is understudied. We used hierarchical linear modeling to estimate the changes in 104 (40% female) Latino/a high school students’ physics, chemistry, and biology motivational beliefs from 9th to 11th grade. Subject-specific ability self-concept, interest, and utility were regressed on gender, immigrant generation status, and perceived science support while controlling for family income, parent education, and adolescents’ school. Adolescents’ utility declined from 9th to 11th grade whereas their interest remained stable for all three science subjects. Adolescents’ ability self-concept increased for biology, decreased for physics, but remained stable for chemistry. Gender differences in adolescents’ motivational beliefs at 9th grade only emerged for physics utility as well as physics and chemistry interest; yet, there were no gender differences in how adolescents’ science motivational beliefs changed over time. Contrary to expectations, immigrant generation status was not significantly associated with adolescents’ science motivational beliefs at 9th grade or in terms of how they changed over time. Adolescents who perceived higher science support generally had higher motivational beliefs in 9th grade, but did not differ on their rate of change. Our findings highlight the need to examine specific science subjects, and that typical gender differences in adolescents’ motivational beliefs discussed in the literature may not generalize to all racial and ethnic groups.

Supplemental Material for Ability Self-Concept Formation in Elementary School: No Dimensional Comparison Effects Across Time

Supplemental Material for Ability Self-Concept Formation in Elementary School: No Dimensional Comparison Effects Across Time

The dark side of perceived positive regard: When parents’ well-intended motivation strategies increase students’ test anxiety

Parental academic conditional positive regard (PACPR) is a socializing strategy in which parents provide more affection, esteem, and attention than usual when their child studies hard and achieves in school. It is favored and recommended as a positive parenting strategy, whereas empirical findings increasingly document serious psychological costs of this well-intended strategy. PACPR can be conceptualized as an important antecedent of test anxiety. However, no study has tested this assumption yet, and research on antecedents of test anxiety is generally scarce. Based on assumptions from self-determination and control-value theory, we conducted one study with secondary students (trait test anxiety, N = 653, M = 13 years) and one study with university students (state test anxiety and test performance, N = 166, M = 20 years), to examine distal (i.e., perceived PACPR) and proximal antecedents (i.e., contingent self-esteem as value cognition; ability self-concept as control cognition) of students’ test anxiety. In line with our hypotheses, path analyses revealed a positive relation between perceived PACPR and test anxiety, and that contingent self-esteem mediated this relation. Ability self-concept showed inverse relations with test anxiety, which, in turn, predicted poorer test performance in Study 2. Unexpectedly, we found no interactive effect of contingent self-esteem and ability self-concept. Our results extend prior research on psychological costs of PACPR to the field of achievement emotions, and suggest that the detrimental effects of perceived PACPR on test anxiety can be generalized onto students with high and low ability self-concept, respectively. Possible reasons of our findings, and practical implications, are discussed.

Gendered STEM career choices: Altruistic values, beliefs, and identity

Female representation remains uneven across STEM fields. Expectancy-Value Theory provides a framework for understanding complexities of STEM career choices; values, as well as gendered beliefs and identity, predict achievement-related behaviors and are associated with STEM gender differences. Specifically, this study aims to understand how altruism and femininity may differentiate membership in STEM fields. The Maryland Adolescent Development in Context Study tracked adolescents from 7th grade to age 26. Six cross-sectional sub-samples of participants associated with STEM outcomes were used. We found altruism partially accounted for gender discrepancies between STEM disciplines; gender, altruism, and femininity predicted towards life sciences and away from physical sciences. Altruism mediated the relationship between femininity and STEM choice and was substantially more predictive than self-concept of ability. This study highlights the importance of values and offers evidence that STEM career trajectories may be influenced by congruency between values, identity, and gendered beliefs about STEM fields.

탐구적 과학 글쓰기를 활용한 실험수업이 초등학생의 논리적 사고력과 과학 학습 동기에 미치는 효과

This study aimed to find effect of the SWH(Science Writing Heuristic) experiment class effect on 5th grade student`s logical thinking ability, science learning motive. For this, it bases on strategy of SWH which developed by Keys et al., (1999). For this experiments, the 5th grade classroom of D-elementary school located in Jinhae-city was selected the experimental group (24 patients). And the other 5th grade classroom in the same school was selected to the comparative group (24 patients). The experimental group was conducted using the SWH(Science Writing Heuristic). Comparison group has been conducted lesson program in accordance with the general science class teacher guide. Was through a pre-test of science learning motivation and academic achievement level can be assumed in the same group. After completing the experimental treatment by conducting a post-mortem examination was statistically validated. The conclusion of these experiments are as below. First, there was no meaning effect to improvement of student’s logical thinking ability by SWH experimental group. During the experimental group, some of students understood the feature of SWH’s each phase and organized systematic science knowledge but most of other students have analyzed problematic situation and were hard to writing for each phase after design of experiment. Third, SWH experimental group was affect on science learning motive. according to post study result, experiment al group which applied SWH was affected on science deep strartegis (p ＜.05), science self-concept of ability (p ＜.05), science learning-focused goal orientation (p ＜.05) than comparative group. It is hard to improve science learning motive which contain affective characteristic in a short period but SWH was positive affect on science learning motive. The above findings, Elementary science class which applied SWH can be concluded to be effective in Science Learning Motive. The experiment class applied SWH needs experiment organization, experiments, writing assignment, debating each other at the same time thus it needs enough classes for students and develop class strategy with report format for student to consider their characteristic and level.

On the effects of social, temporal, and dimensional comparisons on academic self-concept.

Students evaluate their domain-specific abilities by comparing their own achievement in a certain domain with the achievement of others (social comparison), with their own prior achievement (temporal comparison), and with their own achievement in other domains (dimensional comparison). This article is the first to analyze the simultaneous effects of social, temporal, and dimensional comparisons on students’ academic self-concepts of various domains in experimental and field studies. In Study 1 (N = 120), students judged their ability self-concept after having received experimentally manipulated social, temporal, and dimensional comparison feedback. In Study 2 (N = 924), students had to rate their math and German self-concept and were asked to directly compare their achievement to social, temporal, and dimensional comparison standards. In the longitudinal Study 3a (N = 3,054) and 3b (N = 14,008), the three types of comparisons were modeled in an extended internal/external frame of reference model (Marsh, 1986) containing paths from math and verbal achievement level and achievement change to math and verbal self-concept. In all studies, social, temporal, and dimensional comparisons showed significant effects on self-concept. For each comparison process, downward comparisons with worse-off standards resulted in higher self-concepts, whereas upward comparisons with better-off standards resulted in lower self-concepts. These results are in accordance with the theories underlying social, temporal, and dimensional comparison processes and support their integration into a combined framework. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved)

Self-control motivationally reconsidered: “Acting” self-controlled is different to “being good” at self-control

Self-control is typically conceptualized as an inherent human skill, focusing on the imperative control of thoughts, feelings, and behavior. In the present research, we scrutinize this understanding by differentiating between an ability self-concept of self-control strength and experiential acts of self-control. Moreover, by taking a motivational perspective, we analyze how much of a role intrapsychic conflict plays in both conceptions of self-control, and with regard to psychological well-being. In cross-sectional Study 1 (N = 228), we compared a typicality measure of experiential acts of imperative self-control with the widely used Self-Control Scale (Tangney et al. in J Pers 72:271–322, 2004). Findings confirm that “being good” at self-control does not correspond to “acting” self-controlled, and that both measures show opposing relationships to intrapsychic conflict, as well as to well-being. In Study 2 (N = 114), we corroborated these findings by using an experience-sampling approach. Multilevel analyses showed that between-person differences (Level 2) in self-control strength were generally unrelated to experiential acts of self-control in everyday life. By contrast, we found a positive Level 2 effect for acting self-controlled. With regard to momentary affect, both between- and within differences (Level 1) in acting self-controlled served as substantial predictors, in addition to momentary self-determination. Other context-dependent effects (i.e., studying vs. leisure time) further emphasize the need to consider motivational interpretations of self-control (strength).

The role of mothers' beliefs in students' self-concept of ability development

The aim of this study was to investigate whether the child-related competence beliefs of mothers are associated with the development of Finnish adolescents' self-concept of mathematics and literacy ability during their transition from primary to lower secondary school and whether these associations depend on adolescents' level of performance. The results showed that, first, adolescents' self-concept of mathematics and literacy ability decreased over time. The impact of maternal beliefs on the linear trend of the self-concept of mathematics and literacy ability was dependent on the level of students' performance. Mothers' high beliefs buffered against the decrease in adolescents' self-concept of ability in mathematics, but only among high-performing adolescents. In turn, mothers' high beliefs in adolescents' literacy ability were detrimental to the development of low-performing adolescents' self-concept of ability in literacy, whereas mothers' beliefs had no effect on the change in the self-concept of students with average or high literacy performance.

Associations between parents and students’ motivational beliefs in mathematics and mathematical performance: The role of gender

According to Eccles-Parsons et al.’s (1983) parent socialization model, children’s beliefs, values, and grades in mathematics are directly related to their parents’ values and perceptions of children’s mathematical abilities, which are often gendered. However, few researchers have examined how associations between parent and child beliefs and values and grades differ by parent and child gender. In the present study, we measured mathematics ability beliefs, utility value, and grades from 830 students in grades 5–12, as well as their mothers’ and fathers’ perceptions of their child’s mathematics ability and utility of mathematics for their child. Parents of boys believed mathematics was more useful for their child than parents of girls. In most cases, both mothers’ and fathers’ beliefs uniquely contributed to children’s own beliefs and grades. There were several interactions between mothers and fathers for children’s self-concept of ability and girls’ end of year grades, such that high ability beliefs of one parent compensated for low ability beliefs of the other parent. Associations between parents’ ability beliefs and utility value for their children’s end of year grades and mathematics utility value were stronger when the parent was the same gender as the child. However, we also found that a stronger association between parents’ utility value for their children’s and girls’ end of year grades occurred when the parent was the opposite gender of the child (i.e., fathers). Thus, it is important to take into account parent and child gender when understanding associations between parents’ beliefs and children’s beliefs and grades.

Testing the internal/external frame of reference model with elementary school children: Extension to physical ability and intrinsic value

Using a sample of third grade elementary school students (N = 514), we tested a generalized internal/external frame of reference (GI/E) model using math, verbal, and physical education achievements as predictors, and math, verbal, and physical ability self-concepts and intrinsic values as outcomes. Therefore, the present study adds to the generalizability of the GI/E model across age and to the investigation of dimensional comparisons. The findings replicated the assumptions of the classic internal/external frame of reference model by showing positive within-domain relations between math (verbal) achievements and self-concepts, but negative cross-domain relations. Positive within-domain and negative cross-domain achievement relations were also found for math and verbal intrinsic values. The findings further showed positive relations between achievement and self-concept as well as between achievement and intrinsic value within the physical ability domain. In addition, the findings demonstrated a negative relation between math achievement and physical ability self-concept and between German achievement and physical ability intrinsic value. Hence, the findings indicated that dimensional comparisons operate across academic and non-academic domains. Boys and girls did not differ with regard to the relations among constructs as depicted in the GI/E model. However, differential mean levels of the constructs were found for boys and girls.