Do the Benefits of Academic Efficacy and Adaptive Learning Orientations Extend to High-Pressure/Threatening Learning Contexts?

• In Event: AERA Poster Session 6
  In Poster Session: Motivation in Education SIG Poster Session: Process, Methods, and Outcomes

Abstract

Academic efficacy and mastery learning orientation are powerful predictors of academic achievement. However, how students’ academic efficacy and goal orientations shape in-the-moment engagement and learning- and whether these character skills are equally beneficial across all types of learning contexts- remains under-explored. Importantly, do the benefits of academic efficacy and mastery learning orientation extend to high pressure or threatening learning contexts? In this study, we tested: (1) whether students’ academic efficacy and mastery learning orientation predicted learning gains following a single episode of mathematics instruction, (2) whether academic efficacy and mastery learning orientation predicted students’ interest during the lesson, and (3) whether relations between these character skills, learning, and interest differed across high and low-pressure learning contexts.

Authors

• Emily McLaughlin Lyons, University of Chicago

• Lindsey E. Richland, University of California - Irvine